Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster

Don't overlook the exclamation mark in Los Campesinos!, or that there were three in the title of their much-hyped 2006 debut, You! Me! Dancing! This is a band that loves to EXCLAIM!, preferring child-like free expression to the staid social graces of adulthood. You'll know what I mean if you know that song, an early demo of which provoked blog hysteria almost 18 months ago before finding its way onto every discerning indie dancefloor set in town. It was a rhapsodic ode to joyous abandon that deserved the acclaim it received, but it emerged such a long time ago that Los Campesinos! have had eons to consider how to repeat the trick for an entire album - and how to rise to the challenge of meeting huge expectations. Hold On Now, Youngster will meet the expectations of all but the most unreasonably smitten fan in every way but one: the album is sorely let down by the loudness of the production.

Whatever volume you're happy with for the first few seconds, when the main guitar riff of Death to Los Campesinos! kicks in you'll want to turn it down. Then again, at the start of second song, Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats, the bandmates yell "1, 2, 3, 4!" in stereo-effect, and it's still too loud! It beggars belief how nobody could have noticed this before release: Los Campesinos! are the last band to need extra volume in their production. Their music is already bouncy and exuberant to the extent that many critics find them irritating to the point of distraction. The opening 12 minutes of Hold On Now, Youngster are almost relentlessly annoying, particularly that second track which features a lot more shouting, guitar lines, synths and beeps racing each other at breakneck speed, and a hi-hat slopping like a trebly mess all over it. The first enjoyable moment of the album is when it slows and softens with the introduction of violins, blending carefully into Don't Tell Me To Do The Math(s), which itself launches into a noisy sprint that doesn't let up for five more minutes.

So it's a testament to the strength of the final 30 minutes that Hold On Now, Youngster can still ultimately be considered a success. The sexual chemistry in the boy/girl vocals comes to the fore in the delightful My Year In Lists, which features the best of Los Campesinos! lyrical wit in the opening lines and in the ambiguous hook. Knee Deep at ATP provides further evidence of Los Campesinos! ability to be subtle when they put their mind to it. It ends with fast guitars and shouting, but after the carefully constructed build-up it's far from the exasperating trial experienced earlier. And We Exhale And Roll Our Eyes In Unison shows they can reverse that process too, beginning with a hyperactive swing that threatens to unwind before tightening again for a slower, anthemic outro that will have festival crowds singing along all this summer.

Throughout, Los Campesinos! greatest weapons are their lyrics, and their violinist. Anyone can have a fast-paced wiry guitar band and claim an indie-disco hit these days, but Los Campesinos! are set apart by the gentle counterpoint of the strings, and the wittiness of their vocals. One song, entitled This is How You Spell "Ha Ha Ha" I Have Destroyed the Hopes and Dreams of a Generation of Faux-romantics and I'm Pleased, exemplifies both these strengths, with the hilarious title chanted joyfully in the chorus while a high violin line hangs in suspense over the verses, eager to drop in. If it can be said that Los Campesinos! were charged from the outset with the task of replicating the greatness of You! Me! Dancing! for the length of an album, this track is where they get closest.

It's just so unfortunate that Hold On Now, Youngster is prevented from being a true indie-pop classic by the poor choices taken over those vital first 12 minutes. In the circumstances, it's worth being creative: don't rip the first four tracks, pretend they don't exist. My Year In Lists is the very first track, nudge nudge, wink wink, of a short but perfectly formed debut LP.