Los Campesinos! isn’t exactly known for low-key ballads (See: the exclamation point). But on “The Fall of Home,” they turned the volume way low, for a simmering, sad slow-burner. Acoustic guitar patterns play alongside heart-tugging strings, rising and falling like the bumps of a slow car ride.
Gareth Campesinos, never one to shy away from melancholy, sings about the downsides of nostalgia. It looks at that time when you grow up and become a stranger to your childhood home. “Left your home town, for somewhere new/Don’t be surprised now it’s leaving you,” he croons, using the upper-end of his range like never before. “Battery dies on your monthly call/Budget cut at your primary school/Another family friend fell sick,” the lyrics go, as one-time earth-shattering changes become footnotes.
For fans of the band, many whom have followed them since their debut in 2008, time seems to have flown by just as fast. Now, as the group prepares its sixth LP, Sick Scenes, it may be as good as time as any for a sigh and a wistful look back.