Los Campesinos! - ‘All Hell’ review
Los Campesinos! by Martyna Bannister
After a seven-year wait, tomorrow Los Campesinos! return with their seventh studio album (or sixth if you still count WAWAD as an extra-long EP) All Hell, and simply put, it’s the best album of the year and the band’s best ever. It’s an album that showcases everything that makes Los Campesinos! my favourite band of all time. Their emo meets indie meets pop-punk influences, combined with honest, personal lyrics by one of the greatest lyricists out there, come together to create something special. At 15 tracks long (yes three are interludes but still it's long), some might worry that the album might have its fair share of filler, but rest assured, it’s banger after banger. Los Campesinos! have always been a band that means a lot to their fans in a way only a cult band can. To say we are obsessed with them is an understatement; they mean everything to us, and many of us have their lyrics carved deep into our flesh. Just a word of warning, I am going through this one track by track to break down an album that is pretty much guaranteed the top spot on my best-of-the-year list.
All Hell is the culmination of Los Campesinos!' DIY ethos. Not only did band member Tom Bromley produce it, and Rob Taylor from the band also created the artwork but, All Hell is being released on the band's very own Heart Swells label. The album was recorded between October 2023 and February 2024, with sessions split between the band's spiritual home of Cardiff and Frome in Somerset, close to the West Country base of many of the band members.
In addition to the core lineup of Gareth David (vocals, he/him), Jason Adelinia (drums, he/him), Kim Paisey (keys/vocals, she/her), Matt Fidler (bass, he/him), Neil Turner (guitar, he/him), Rob Taylor (keys/percussion, he/him), and Tom Bromley (lead guitar, he/him), the band recruited the talents of Holly Carpenter on violin, Eileen McDonald Sparks on cello, and Jon Natchez on saxophone, adding a rich, layered sound to their already dynamic music. The album was engineered by Milo Ferreira-Hayes, with additional engineering by Gareth Bodman, and mixed and mastered by Andrei Eremin.
The band describes All Hell as an album exploring themes of drinking for fun and misery, adult acne, adult friendship, football, death and dying, love and sex, late-stage capitalism, Orpheus, daydreaming, night terrors, the heart as an organ and as a burden, suburban boredom, Tears of the Kingdom, the punks on the playlist, increments of time, climate apocalypse, and the moon. For a band that tongue-in-cheek describes themselves as the UK's first and only emo band, they have crafted an album with emotional intensity and connection at its core. Its lyrics, a treasure trove of football references, tales of romantic woe, and painfully frank exorcisms, have resulted in an album that deserves its own subgenre: West-Country Emo.
Out of the gate, we are hit by the Midwest emo-influenced intro to “The Coin-Op Guillotine.” It’s a long and brooding start, with strings blending with guitars in a whirling sound reminiscent of an American Football track. That is, until the 52-second mark when Gareth’s vocals kick in, transporting us to classic Los Campesinos! territory. The vivid imagery in Gareth’s lyrics paints scenes that feel like a burnt-out love song at times, and at others, like waking up in a drunk haze where it’s almost impossible to tell the difference between a Sunday church service and a Sunday league match. The track serves beautifully as an introduction to the album—it sounds distinctly Los Campesinos! but more mature and assured in their sound. Once you hear it, you’ll want to put the album on repeat to experience it over and over again.
“Holy Smoke (2005)” is the most pop-punk I have ever heard Los Campesinos! sound, outside their cover of blink-182’s “Going Away to College.” A lot of this is due to the frenzied pace of Jason’s drumming. The pop-punk influence serves as the perfect counterpoint, a genre known for its youthful abandon. Here, Gareth is pensive, looking back at his golden years circa 2005 and lamenting where he finds himself now: “no children and no profession, walking dead at 37.” I can’t wait to hear this one live; I have a feeling it will hit hard and deep.
Up next is a track that needs no introduction to diehard Los Campesinos! fans, “A Psychic Wound.” It served as our first taste of the new album when they played it at their Troxy gig at the start of the year. Lyrically, it’s a track about fading in and out of consciousness and memories in this capitalist hellscape. Musically, it’s another banger, and I can’t stop spinning it on the radio show. It’s a perfect example of everything the band has perfected in their nearly twenty-year existence.
We are then presented with the first of three interlude sections on the album, and this one has possibly the most Los Campesinos! title of all time: “I. Spit; or, a Bite Mark in the Shape of the Sunflower State.” The title brings to mind “A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State; or, Letters from Me to Charlotte” and “Coda: A Burn Scar In The Shape Of The Sooner State” from their 2010 album Romance Is Boring. Coincidentally or not, the Sunflower State (Kansas) borders both the Show Me State (Missouri) and the Sooner State (Oklahoma). It’s an acoustic, stripped-back interlude that lyrically seems like it could be part of the Letters from Me to Charlotte series, reading like an exchange of secrets in letters about our fears to one another.
“Long Throes” is a perfect example of the West-Country Emo sound I mentioned earlier, and it’s possibly my favourite track on the album. It combines elements of Midwest emo with lyrics and sounds that could only come from the UK and Gareth’s home in the West Country. The title is a classic pun on the long throw tactic in football, and, like in “The Coin-Op Guillotine,” we get a mixture of football, religion, and bitterness towards the Tory-supporting masses that populate parts of the West Country and their lack of empathy. In short, it’s everything I want from a Los Campesinos! song.
Next up is the lead single, “Feast Of Tongues,” and I can attest from catching the band at 2000trees last weekend that this one is sung back at the band with gusto. The chorus, “I want the trust of every animal … we will feast on the tongues of the last bootlickers,” is destined to become a staple of the Los Camp lexicon. I cried the first time I heard it and still feel my throat tremble each time I put it on. It’s easy to see why it was picked as the first official preview of the album.
I have a feeling that “The Order of the Seasons” will be adored by newer Los Campesinos! fans. It’s an emo-pop jam with a melody that could easily fit on a Bears In Trees record. If you’re playing Los Camp bingo, this one will help you tick off a few items on your scorecard. It’s definitely the song about drinking for fun and misery, featuring one of the album’s best football references with “playing the high line.” There is a clear ME REX influence in the lyricism, especially in the line “you leave your powerless, the cream getting sourpuss.” It’s no secret that Gareth is a fan of the band, and I’ve bumped into him twice at their gigs in Bristol recently. If there is one track on All Hell that will make you dance in your melancholy, it’s this one.
Around the album’s halfway point, we get the second of three interludes, dubbed “II. Music for Aerial Toll House.” It’s a brooding, distant, almost post-rock instrumental track that harkens back to Tom’s work on Muriel’s debut album and his live work with the band.
“To Hell in a Handjob” is a track that many fans likely highlighted when the band shared the tracklist for All Hell, and they won’t be disappointed. There are more religious references in this one, with lines like “devil at my door might just let him” and “guardian angel bored to death.” I wonder if this introspection comes with age and questioning one’s place in this hellscape we call life, or perhaps it’s the years Gareth spent working in the graveyard with his father influencing his imagery. Who knows? Well, Gareth does, but he’s not here to answer your questions. There are certainly references to a certain convicted felon running for the American presidency again and his insurrectionist followers, plus another classic football reference to boot. The addition of saxophone to this track is brilliant.
Next up is “Clown Blood/Orpheus’ Bobbing Head,” a track that harks back to the band’s earlier days with its “can we calm the f*ck down” line. Musically, this track goes all out, with its instrumentation being epic throughout. Panning guitars attack us in the midsection, and it has a slow outro that really lets us live in the song. Oh, and the final sung phrase of “Orpheus’ head bobs in the ocean … and another one” is a chant just waiting to happen.
In “kms,” we get a Kim-led track on the album—yes, you read that right, a Kim-led track. The last one I can remember off the top of my head was “Little Mouth,” part of the soundtrack to the film Benny & Jolene. It was the final track fans were treated to before the album's release and is the sixth in the band’s “Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown” series. It was the final track written for the album and one of the fastest in its construction. Rather than feeling rushed, it’s definitely one of the best. The lyrics seem to address burnout and loss of faith in the political system, with its outro: “Scratchcard inside an envelope, little effort for fleeting fun, I truly hope that both our luck is out, I’d kill myself if he won.
As we turn the corner of the final section of the album we get our third interlude the acoustic guitar strummed “III. Surfing a Contrail”. This little interlude sets us up perfectly for All Hell’s final trio of tracks.
“Moonstruck” is definitely up there with “Long Throes” as my favourite track on the album—this one bangs from the get-go. Its punky, driven intro will get you on your feet and dancing around the room. Gareth finds himself on the hotboxed top deck of a double-decker bus (is it the 178?), catching a glimpse of the supermoon. There is a distinct fourth-wave emo revival feel to this one, with a strong The Hotelier vibe in the best way. Tracks like this make it clear why All Hell is my favourite Los Campesinos! album and, more than likely, my favourite album of all time. They left nothing on the table and put everything into this one to produce an album that I never thought possible from the band when I first heard “Hold on Now, Youngster…” back in 2008. Yes, I am very much moonstruck.
Seemingly taking its title from Manchester United losing the Charity Shield in 1998 right before their treble success the following year, “0898 HEARTACHE” was the third single released before the album dropped. Lyrically, it is a desperate, headlong plunge from uncertainty into nothingness. This song delves into the struggle against Mother Nature, drowning sorrows in alcohol, and shattering heavy silences with piercing questions during long-distance calls to everyone from your past. But as you can imagine from a Los Camp track, it slaps and includes references to Gareth’s interests, such as pro wrestling, with the line “I couldn’t draw a dime in 50 states.”
Get your official Los Campesinos! album bingo card ready—it’s time to mark off that “adult acne” square with All Hell’s final track, “Adult Acne Stigmata.” To close, it’s a melancholic acoustic number; most of the track features Gareth paired with an acoustic guitar until we get an eclectic, piano synth chorus, and call-and-response vocals. It also presents us with the perfect lyrical coda to the album: “My eyes shine like two-pound coins I found upon the pool table rail heart swells, you’re so beautiful, the sky is blue but we both know too well it’s all hell.” The track finishes with the distant droning notes of the final piano chord.
Los Campesinos! could have phoned it in and made an album that sounded good enough, and probably most of us diehard fans would have still lapped it up, so starved are we of anything new from our favourite band. But thankfully, for a band that time and time again shows they care deeply about their art and their fans, they did not do this. Instead, they created the best album of the year and the best album of their career. With All Hell, they have not only met but surpassed the lofty expectations set by their previous work. The album is a testament to their evolution and maturity as artists, demonstrating their ability to blend introspective lyricism with innovative musicality. It's a celebration of their past while forging a bold new direction for the future. Every track is a reminder of why we fell in love with Los Campesinos! in the first place and a promise that their music will continue to resonate with us for years to come. All Hell is not just an album; it's an experience, a journey through the highs and lows of life, captured by a band that knows how to turn personal and collective angst into something profoundly beautiful. So, here's to Los Campesinos!—for staying true to their roots, for pushing the boundaries, and for giving us an album that is nothing short of a masterpiece.
All Hell from Los Campesinos! is out this Friday 19 July via the band’s own Heart Swells label and available on all good streaming platforms. Catch them on their Mortal Joy UK tour this September.
