Fractionals

So with both of us being obsessed fans, it's not surprising that my friend Julia and I have been talking a lot about Romance Is Boring, the new Los Campesinos! album. The Pitchfork review pretty much nails it, for once (I like a lot of the writers at Pitchfork but even with the ex-Stylus people I can't say we agree on much). I don't recall reading Paul Thompson before, but for the first time in a long while I've run into something that's going to make writing my own review much harder, because Thompson has covered all the bases and covered them so judiciously and fairly I'm honestly not sure what else I have to add. It really is a brilliant album, and exactly the kind of surprising/not surprising at all progression I expected from them when I said about the debut "five or ten years from now, the only way we won’t be speaking of Hold on Now, Youngster… as a classic will be if Los Campesinos! have already topped it."

On a much less sensible note, a little while ago Julia sent me a line from the album she thinks is hilarious. And I didn't think it was that funny at all, which meant that while listening to RIB again today I wrote down all the things about Romance Is Boring I thought were funnier (because I'm a jerk, yes). Between this one, the new Hot Chip and the new Magnetic Fields I am feeling the urge to write something on the use of humour in music, but god only knows when/if I'll find the time. Anyway, that list (which, yes, is often dependant on context and delivery, it's music after all):

1. "But let's talk about you for a minute"
2. "I think I'd do it for love, were it not for the money"
3. "And so fucking on, and so fucking forth"
4. "I think we'd make about a hundred million pounds"
5. It's been over quoted, but still: "I think we need more post-coital and less post-rock"
6. "And what exactly do you mean by 'and what can you even eat'?/and how does that affect how I'll get off this evening?"
7. "I'll bind you and gag you and all's well that ends, I suppose"
8. "And if this changes your life, did you have one before?"
9. the title "I Just Sighed. I Just Sighed, Just So You Know"
10. "I'm pretty sure I can heeeeaaaaarrrrr you"
11. "There were racists on the radio, trying to give up smoking"
12. everyone yelling "Can we all please just calm the fuck down?"