Los Campesinos!

Los Campesinos! formed in Cardiff, Wales, in 2006 as a seven-piece group devoted to crafting smart, high-energy indie pop. Over the years the Cardiff collective experienced repeated personnel changes and a clear stylistic progression, shifting from the frantic tuneful clamor of its 2008 debut Hold On Now, Youngster... toward the more polished, emo-inflected writing heard on the 2024 release All Hell—the first album by the band to reach the U.K. Top 20.

Originally assembled from Cardiff University attendees Aleksandra on keyboard and horn, Ellen on bass, Gareth on glockenspiel, Harriet on violin and keyboard, Neil on guitar, Ollie on drums, and Tom on guitar, the members adopted the shared surname Campesinos! and divided vocal duties among themselves. Their inaugural performance took place at a university event in May 2006; by August they had drawn sufficient attention to land a support slot with Broken Social Scene. Before the year ended they secured a deal with Wichita Recordings, which issued the group’s debut single in early 2007.

A North American agreement with Arts & Crafts came months afterward, and Los Campesinos! marked the summer by delivering new material on both imprints: another Wichita single alongside the Arts & Crafts EP Sticking Fingers Into Sockets. Hold On Now, Youngster... arrived in full in early 2008. Following an extensive tour that occupied much of the calendar—including a Seattle session for fresh recordings—the band returned with its second album, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, in November. Additional road work ensued, encompassing a first visit to South America. Early in 2009 the musicians relocated to Connecticut to track Romance Is Boring, which surfaced at the start of 2010.

Aleksandra departed during those sessions; later that year Gareth’s sister Kim joined on keyboards. Rob also entered the lineup, supplying supplementary instrumentation for concerts. The personnel carousel continued in June 2010 when Ollie was dismissed and longtime merchandiser Jason assumed drumming duties. Concurrently the band issued the EP All’s Well That Ends, containing reworked versions of material from Romance Is Boring. The reconstituted group then traveled to Spain to record its fourth album once more with producer John Goodmanson. Hello Sadness emerged in November 2011. Roughly a month prior, Harriet revealed her departure to resume academic studies. Ellen exited in late 2012 to explore separate projects. The remaining members again enlisted Goodmanson for the follow-up. No Blues, their fifth album, appeared on Wichita and Turnstile in late 2013.

After a largely quiet 2014 the band resurfaced near year’s end with the holiday EP A Los Campesinos! Christmas. Bassist Matt joined as the musicians reconvened with Goodmanson in 2016 to begin work on their sixth record. Sick Scenes, which revived some of the raw drive of their earliest output, was released by Wichita in early 2017. Seven years passed before the arrival of All Hell in 2024 on the Heart Swells imprint following the end of the Wichita association. Despite minimal promotional support the album received a strong response and entered the U.K. charts at number 14.