(Arts & Crafts)

Earlier this year, the seven-member Welsh band Los Campesinos! released their debut record, Hold On Now, Youngster..., a 12-song blast blending 25 years of post–punk rock into a most delicious and addictive musical smoothie. (The recipe, according to my calculations: four cups baby Mekons, two cups early Libertines, one tablespoon oil of Arcade Fire, all prepared by Eddie Argos's bookish little brother.) Now, a mere nine months later, comes their second album, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, recorded this summer in Seattle with the venerable John Goodmanson, in sessions originally intended to produce B-sides for forthcoming singles but ultimately deemed good enough for a full release.

Like its predecessor, Beautiful is a hook-drunk wad of short songs with long titles ("Between an Erupting Earth and an Exploding Sky," "You'll Need Those Fingers for Crossing"), each of which feels like a couple songs fighting for prominence, all banged out with guitars and drums and glockenspiel and rousing group chants. Unlike its predecessor, Beautiful is a contained affair: There will be no singles released from the record and only one pressing—once the first run of copies is gone, there'll be no more. As it turns out, these restrictions—along with the disc's bonus accoutrements (DVD, poster, zine)—are Beautiful's most distinctive component; in virtually every other respect, the record is a less-ambitious twin of the debut.

This isn't a bad thing—the band's attack is original enough to fuel a few good records. But if you're just starting with Los Campesinos!, get the debut. Once you love it, here's some more.