Romance Is Boring is interesting

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WELSH band Los Campesinos! are not your conventional indie pop band.
For a start there's seven of them, eight when live, and their new album, Romance Is Boring, is chock-full of unwieldy titles like A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State; or, Letters from Me to Charlotte or We’ve Got Your Back (Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #2).
And this increasingly-obtuse nature is also clearly exhibited in the band's music, on this, their third album in 24 months.
For every catchy angular post-punk riff - such as the sporadic chorus There Are Listed Buildings of the gloriously up-tempo Straight In At 101 - there's an unexpected change of direction or oddball lyric to temper it.
This results in a cigarette-drag of an LP - not exactly pleasant on first encounter, but you can't help but be drawn back for more.
Romance may be boring, but for all their spiky awkwardness, Los Campesinos! remain as loveable as ever.