Los Campesinos!

It was always going to be tough for Los Campesinos! because they appeared on the scene with the near-perfect "You! Me! Dancing!" and it was going to be hard enough to equal that, let alone top it. Yet that is what they've tried to do repeatedly, and at great lengths, with mixed results. This is their third album in just two years, so they're stretching themselves a little bit thin, and that's why Romance Is Boring is only good half of the time. There is something commendable about the band trying to broaden their range and try out a few new colours on their palette, but it might have been advisable to do some of that behind closed doors. When it does work, like on the sweeping "The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future," it is a glorious thing and suggests they have the capability to fill the gap on Arts & Crafts until Broken Social Scene finally release a new album. But when it doesn't, it makes you long for the days when they made unfettered, carefree pop music, something they are doing less and less frequently. At the least, they should let their more ambitious ideas fully form before releasing them. Hopefully they will learn their lessons and slow things down instead of trying to grow up in public.