Sick Scenes in Bloomington, MN

One could be excused for wondering why
Los Campesinos!
are still making records at this late date. When they burst onto the scene in 2007 with a bracing batch of singles -- that sounded like it took the studio engineer's intense concentration to corral the unbridled excitement and frantic energy that came flying off the band like a technicolor rain shower -- they seemed destined to burn brightly for a little while, then burst. Fast forward a decade and they've released their sixth album,
Sick Scenes
, and it's hard to reconcile the mature, slickly produced music on display with the music they made in their early days. Some constants do endure, like
Gareth
's lacerating lyrics, the massed vocals in the choruses, the occasional glockenspiel, and a few songs that hit hard sonically and emotionally. The production does what it can to gloss over the emotions with slickly layered guitars and keys, but it can't always contain
's biting vocals or keep songs like "Hung Empty" from taking flight. Unlike their previous album
No Blues
, the production and the band fight to a draw. The group brings enough aggression (see the opening ranter "Renato Dall' Ara [2008]" for proof of that) and passion to the songs that every now and then they break through the restraints they're shackled with to make a heartfelt impression. Tracks like "I Broke Up in Amarante" and "Sad Suppers" have all the fury and feeling of their early work, plus the benefits of life experience and a little bit of wisdom. ~ Tim Sendra