Album Focus: Los Campesinos! – 'Hold On Now, Youngster'

Hi, I'm Nate Lanxon and this is Encoded's album focus show, where I tell you all about one of this week's best releases, so sit down, recline and pour yourself a scotch.

This week we're talking serial exclamation-mark abusers Los Campesinos!, the seven-piece indie heroes from Cardiff, whose debut album, Hold On Now, Youngster, is out now.

Lead single 'Death to Los Campesinos!', which came out last week, has finally put them in the spotlight after a couple of introductory releases last year, and though it does feel like an age since the big industry hype machine sucked them into its shiny aluminium intestines, tracks like 'You! Me! Dancing!' and 'Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks' still sound as fresh as they did when they first hit MySpace in late 2006.

Los Campesinos! have just finished their latest UK tour and are now driving around Europe peddling their wares, but fear not, they're bound to bring their balls-to-the-wall live show back before long. I suggest loading up their MySpace page and hitting F5 repeatedly until new gigs are added.

Overall, this is a relentless, hook-laden indie record, with all the exuberance of a hyperactive 5 year old, dosed up on tartrazine and hitting all the right notes on a Fisher-Price xylophone.

Next week we'll be talking about former Pavement front man Stephen Malkmus' latest solo effort, the hopefully not self-descriptive Real Emotional Trash. Until then, be excellent to each other.