There are two main things that most people don't realize about Los Campesinos! Firstly, they're an emo band. And secondly, they're one of the most consistent emo bands in the last two decades. The Welsh-born seven-piece have been slowly growing their somewhat small but mighty fan base since their pair of debut albums in 2008, attracting more devout followers with every release since, while retaining the ones who fell in love with them from the beginning. Every fan that has been swept up in the Los Campesinos! orbit is immediately drawn by their witty and direct lyrics, ecstatic energy and songs jam-packed with endless hooks and hidden puns and references.
All Hell is their first album in seven years — and their first to be entirely self-released — and Los Campesinos! aren't showing any signs of slowing down, although their songs are more about getting old than usual. All Hell is about surviving adulthood in your late 30s, embracing our crumbling society and accepting our aging bodies. Now with many of the band members fully living their lives as parents with day jobs and mortgages, their anxieties are channeled a little differently from their youth. "A three-beer buzz or bust these days," frontman and lyricist Gareth David laments in his animated delivery on "The Coin-Op Guillotine," amidst intricate Midwest emo guitars and melancholy glockenspiel, courtesy of chief songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Tom Bromley. The two have been building the collective's world since the start, and they hone in on the classic Los Campesinos! sound on "Holy Smoke (2005)" where nimble guitar licks and urgent drums writhe in gleeful harmony as David sings, "Don't get me wrong I love my friends' kids / Sure they'll grow to be good leftists / Bet they'll make their parents proud and make the best of what they're left with." A mid-life crisis is more bearable if you can really sing about it.
Los Campesinos!'s music is angry, but in an upbeat sort of way, like being able to laugh at one's own misfortunes. It's a healthy outlet to express misery and general ennui with the world. All Hell is full of David's signature inventive wordplay, rushing in waves and stabbing you with one-liners like on "0898 Heartache"; "Cavalcade through antemortem / Terminal suburban boredom / Summon second magpie for a small dopamine hit." David's lyrics are never overly macabre, his dry sense of humour always cleverly layered in, though he doesn't shy away from saying how it is. "One thousand memes I sent to you, emoji reacted to / This is all we've got now?" he cheekily wails as Bromley's guitars hit overdrive and a saxophone riff twists within the breakneck wall of noise on "To Hell in a Handjob." David's voice still sounds boyish after all these years, but All Hell noticeably showcases his increased range. Call it getting older, but it makes these songs that much more dynamic.
The downbeat "Clown Blood/Orpheus' Bobbing Head," is decidedly dark in tone, but explodes with frantic guitars and foreboding moody quips that are "succumbing to nostalgia." On the other end of the spectrum, the skittering beat and softened woo-ing of "Long Throes" is more outwardly depressing, with David growing forever tired of the hungry capitalist system we live in. There's not much else to do but, "Stay home and keep the garden alive," he sings after a veiled Silver Jews reference on melodramatic lead single "Feast of Tongues." Similarly, their hope stretches thin on "A Psychic Wound," a straight up emo anthem that wouldn't sound out of place on a Hotelier album, where David bluntly claims, "You can buy your hopes and dreams now at the affiliate link."
The band have managed to navigate the genre-du-jour tags like no other — it's quite the achievement really. Their 2008 debut Hold On Now, Youngster… was billed as a twee-pop record, a label that took years for Los Campesinos! to shake off. They tried immediately with the dirtier, angrier We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed just a few months later, but blog rock critics at the time were slow to change compared to the instant hot-new-thing turnover we have today. Since then, Los Campesinos! have crafted consistently great pop records, while maintaining their deeply rich musical arrangements and humble authenticity. While many of their early aughts peers have long disappeared from relevancy, Los Campesinos! have carved out a unique niche, keeping things fresh and urgently moving.