Listening to Los Campesinos!, I try to imagine what they look like.
The male voice definitely belongs to someone with big eyes that take up
half his head and long, narrow limbs that extend outward more than
downward. He is pigeon-toed and his chest cavity is concave. He
unironically wears sweaters with kittens on them. His British accent is
the kind of British accent that originates where Mother Goose was
born.
It’s basically the very picture of twee, in all of its childlike,
sparkly glory, which is why it’s so off-putting when the Camps say the
word “horny” or talk about mercy killings. It’s not necessarily
unpleasant, but it catches your ear and reminds you that, no, you
aren’t listening to music made by children—you are listening to
music made by grown-ups who may be cute but still have grown-up
problems.
So the songs are all full of glockenspiels (it sounds like someone
must play only glockenspiel), high-pitched guitar lines, and
traded male and female vocals, and yes, K Records is invoked. But it’s
not all Field Mice and rainbows—there are songs about love bonds
broken and stomach-churning insincerity. In “Knee Deep at ATP,” the
subject is grammar: “And for each correctly used apostrophe/I could
feel my heart sink inside my chest in front of me.” The lyrics are
sometimes a bit labored, but they’re often pleasantly lost in the huge
melee of strings and bells and that one boy singer’s wacky accent.
If you got super into early Architecture in Helsinki (before they
caught the ragga bug), this record will satisfy your longing needs for
adorability, and it’s quite good for reading a book in the park on a
breezy day.
Los Campesinos! play Sat May 31, Neumo’s, 8 pm, $12, all ages.
With Parenthetical Girls.
Aves 
Passeriformes
Corvidae
Corvus
Los Campesinos!
Hold on Now, Youngster…(Arts & Crafts)