Gareth Campesinos! loves football (soccer). In a recent interview, he said that while he recognizes that millions of people would love to have his life as a member of a relatively successful band, he’d give it all up if it meant that he could play football with a similar level of success (He also explains several of his football references). On No Blues, the latest release from Los Campesinos!, Gareth channels his resignation / disappointment about having peaked as an athlete into explaining some of his other frustrations and obsessions: love, sex, and death.
The record opens with “For Flotsam.” Right away, Gareth describes his mood, to the woman he’s about to lose, in football terms: “The last set of goalposts taken down, summer of odd-numbered year [which means no international soccer to watch this summer].” “I’ve thrown my goalkeeper forward,” he sings; but even that’s not enough to keep her.
There are references to the 2004 League Cup Final (“What Death Leaves Behind”), the position of playmaker or trequartista (“Portrait of the Trequartista as a Young Man”), famous plays by Yeboah and Panenka (“Glue Me”). Gareth even curses his former lovers to celibacy, invoking the “Béla Guttmann [a coach who is said to have cursed one of his former teams after they refused him a raise] of Love” (“Let It Spill”).
It’s not all football, though. “Cemetery Gaits” calls out The Smiths, an obvious influence on Los Campesinos!: “They boast of poets on their side, but what use will they be if this comes to a fight?” Single “Avocado, Baby” references Roman mythology and game shows.
Gareth sings of failing at relationships, lusting after his girlfriend’s housemate, and leaping to his death in an estuary. He knows how this makes him sound, though, and pokes fun at himself: “There is no blues that can sound quite as heartfelt as mine.”
Produced by John Goodmanson and guitarist Tom Campesinos!, No Blues features the anthemic sound, group vocals, and chanted refrains that characterize the best Los Campesinos! songs. The sound here is less wild, more mature than the band’s earliest recordings.
Packed with references and dealing with a consistent set of subjects, Los Campesinos! songs can often sound like inside jokes. With its heavy reliance on football as a metaphor, No Blues, could have taken that feeling to a level that would shut out new fans. I don’t think that happens here. The themes are universal enough that it wouldn’t matter whether Gareth were using football, knitting, or macroeconomics as his metaphor. Most people can identify with the person muddling through life, doubting themselves, and struggling with relationships.
No Blues is out now on Wichita.
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