Release: 2008
Label: Wichita/Arts & Crafts
[an earlier version of this review appeared on the forums of the website DigitalDreamDoor on August 18, 2008. The review has been significantly altered from its original form to add, remove and expand some content and to fix some egregious spelling errors.]
Its pretty safe to say that the two best debut albums released in 2008 were by Welsh indie pop septet Los Campesinos! and Brooklyn alt-rock heroes Vampire Weekend. It's even safer to say, that upon comparing the two, Hold on Now, Youngster..., the offering by Los Campesinos!, is a better record than Vampire Weekend's. Vampire Weekend's record drowned to death in a wave of unanimous praise and non stop press coverage that continues eight months after it's release. However, the only press coverage Hold on Now Youngster got was a few scattered reviews, yet most of those were positive. Everyone from respected journeyman critic Robert Christgau, to Allmusic to Pitchfork Media loved this album. In fact, the only bad review i've found was from Alternative Press, who don't count anyway, because its an awful magazine and it mostly focuse on the "pop punk/emo" side of music instead of, you know, actual alternative rock. Also, unlike Vampire Weekend, which made the fatal flaw of featuring 5 of the records' best tracks all in a row, How On Now, Youngster works almost like those cassette mixtapes your hipster friends make for you: each track is exactly where it should be.
The band has two lead singers (the other five shout around them): Glockenspiel player Gareth Campesinos! and keyboardist Aleksandra Campesinos! (the band members all share the last name "Campesinos!" and their song lyrics are attributed to "Team Campesinos!". Their real names are on the internet via one or two music publishing sites, but I prefer to respect the band's naming conventions) who have the ability to not only to blend their voices perfectly together but also have the ability to build off of one another but also are able to sing in the classic "call/response" style ala Heavenly's classic twee duet with Beat Happening's Calvin Johnson, "C is the Heavenly Option" (which the band actually covered). This is best exemplified by "We Are All Accelerated Readers" in which Aleksandra answers back to Gareth's "And no more conversations about what Breakfast Club character you'd be, I'd be the one that dies" with "no one dies" to which Gareth replies "oh well, then what's the point?"
The first track "Death to Los Campesinos!" is a strong song and great choice to open up the record (it actually starts with the band tuning their instruments of all things). In the course of the track's nearly three minute running time, the band manages to rhyme "botany" with "dichotomy" without sounding pompous, singer Gareth actually pulls off the lyric "i'll be ctrl-alt-deleting your face with no reservations". And there's the glockenspiel. I actually think they are the only band in the history of ever to actually use the glockenspiel as the featured instrument.
Of course, the main attraction of the album is the fantastic "You! Me! Dancing!" (in a rerecorded and slightly longer version than the version that was issued as a single and appeared on Sticking Fingers Into Sockets, the band's 2007 EP), a track which features a gorgeous and building guitar and violin intro, a nice little rant at the end by Gareth about his confusion over how discos turn the lights on when they want you to leave and supermarkets turn the lights off and - the standout part of the song - a glockenspiel solo. I've previously taken flack proclaiming that "You! Me! Dancing!" is this decade's equivalent of "Marquee Moon" or "Good Morning, Captain". Well, until a better, longish indie/alternative/punk track comes along in the remaining year and a half of this decade I stand by my proclamation.
Other tracks of note include the short but sweet "My Year in Lists", the witty "...And We Exhale and Roll Our Eyes in Unison" and "Drop It Doe Eyes" which has some great vocal harmonies.
Are there a few missteps on the album? "Knee Deep at ATP", despite being pretty good, is the most forgettable song on the album, and you want more of "My Year in Lists" due to its brief play time, and "This Is How You Spell "HAHAHA, We Destroyed The Hopes And Dreams Of A Generation Of Faux-Romantics"" is a horrible title of a song, despite it being one of the standouts on the record (and they actually say the title in the song, take that shitty emo bands!). The album ends with "2007: The Year Punk Rock Broke (My Heart)", which has only one verse and then turns into an impressive instrumental. "2007" is not listed on the album, but its not one of those stupid hidden tracks that record labels love to add after a long silence on the last track. It is a seperate track, it's just not listed and the band considers it a "bonus" song.
They could have included the fine single "The International Tweexcore Underground" (released a few months after Sticking Fingers Into Sockets) or "How I Taught Myself to Scream" the wonderful little song the band released to mailing list subscribers a few months after the album's release (it was recorded for HON,Y but the band did not include it in the final track list). But the album is still a great listen that only wets for We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, the band's second "record" (its too long to be an EP and too short to an album), released only 7 months after, which is another excellent album that proved that Los Campesinos! weren't a one album wonder and that Hold On Now, Youngster... was no fluke.
Note: "The International Tweexcore Underground" does appear on the Japanese release of the CD along that cover of "C is the Heavenly Option" by Heavenly and a completely unexpected cover of "Police Story" by Black Flag. Of course, you're not going to buy the Japanese import, are you?
- Piper
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