Romance Is Boring

Romance Is Boring is a bit of a jump for the band that released a song called "The International Tweexcore Underground." The Wales septet Los Campesinos!'s first releases centered on cheeky shouts and happy-go-lucky glockenspiels, and while the new set uses some of that, it's also heavy on brash guitars and distorted, sometimes-buried words. The dark album opener "In Media Res" does well with glitchy drum-machine beats, but they clash too much with frontman Gareth Campesinos' (they all adopt the same surname) unmelodic vocals. Later, the dizzying punk rant "Plan A" provides painfully piercing shrieks and unintelligible verses.

As expected from LC!, though, there's no shortage of hilarious, melodramatic song titles, the best being "I Just Sighed. I Just Sighed, Just So You Know" and "This Is A Flag. There Is No Wind." Also intact are Gareth's memorable musings on youth, death, and love. With only bits and pieces of songs mirroring the same euphoria as the band's first two records, the opening line of "Straight In At 101" sums Romance up nicely: "I think we need more post-coital and less post-rock/Feels like the buildup takes forever but you never get me off."