If Euro 2016 made you more ashamed to be British than Theresa going gooey over Trump, spare a thought for Gareth David of Cardiff alt-pop maestros Los Campesinos!. He watched plucky underdogs Wales crash out in the semis while drinking his way through an existential crisis in Portugal – hence the sixth LC! album they made there has him dreaming of ‘anchoring that midfield like the anchor in my midriff’ on I Broke Up In Amarante.
International footballing nightmares or not, David has been a master of torrid punk-pop angst since 2008’s We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, and Sick Scenes is among LC!’s most accomplished collection yet. It mingles grunge Wombats – on the likes of Renato Dall’Ara (2008), Sad Suppers and For Whom The Belly Tolls – with refined classical pop sweeps akin to The National or Team Me, jacked up on Haribo (A Litany/Heart Swells, A Slow, Slow Death, Got Stendhal’s). Sick as a particularly vibrant parrot.
