Romance Is Boring
Encyclopedia
Release history
Date | Country | Label (Cat#) |
---|---|---|
United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... /Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... |
Arts & Crafts Arts & Crafts (record label) Arts & Crafts Productions is a Toronto-based independent artist services company, offering expertise as an independent record label, management firm, merchandiser and music publisher both in Canada and internationally... (A&C050) |
|
United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
Wichita Recordings Wichita Recordings Wichita Recordings is an independent record label located in London, founded in 2000 by Mark Bowen and Dick Green. Its most notable signees are Bloc Party, The Cribs, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Her Space Holiday, Los Campesinos! and Peter Bjorn and John... (WEBB239) |
Album Sound & Influences
The album generally stays true to the band's original indie popIndie pop
Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...
genre. However, they were also applauded for greatly expanding their sound. When speaking of the album's influences, guitarist Tom Campesinos cited Guided by Voices
Guided by Voices
Guided by Voices is an American indie rock band originating from Dayton, Ohio. Beginning with the band's formation in 1983, it made frequent personnel changes but always maintained the presence of principal songwriter Robert Pollard...
, Blur
Blur (band)
Blur is an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1989 as Seymour, the group consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing...
and Modest Mouse
Modest Mouse
Modest Mouse is an American indie rock band formed in 1993 in Issaquah, Washington, by singer/lyricist/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy. They are based in Portland, Oregon. Since their 1996 debut album, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think...
were major influences upon the album.
Reception
Initial critical response was generally positive. At MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 75, based on 24 reviews.
British music magazine
Music magazine
A music magazine is a magazine dedicated to music and music culture. Such magazines typically include music news, interviews, photo shoots, essays, record reviews, concert reviews and occasionally have a covermount with recorded music.-Notable music magazines:...
NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
gave the album a positive 8/10 review, naming it "a significant step forward", in comparison to previous material. However, other reviews were less than positive, fellow British music magazine
Music magazine
A music magazine is a magazine dedicated to music and music culture. Such magazines typically include music news, interviews, photo shoots, essays, record reviews, concert reviews and occasionally have a covermount with recorded music.-Notable music magazines:...
Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
stated that "the band have beefed up their sound, at the expense of their spindly charm."
Charts
Charts (2010) | Peak position |
---|---|
UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
92 |
US Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers Top Heatseekers refers to either of two separate "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by Billboard Magazine: the Heatseekers Albums chart or the Heatseekers Songs chart. They were introduced by Billboard in 1993 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new and developing musical... |
3 |
US Top Independent | 28 |
Personnel
- Aleksandra Campesinos! – lead vocals, keyboard
- Ellen Campesinos! – bass guitar, backing vocals
- Gareth Campesinos! – lead vocals, glockenspiel
- Harriet Campesinos! – violin, keyboard
- Neil Campesinos! – guitar, backing vocals
- Ollie Campesinos! – drums
- Tom Campesinos! – lead guitar, backing vocals
- Kim Campesinos! – shruti box, piccolo
- Zac Pennington – backing vocals
- Jamie StewartJamie StewartJames "Jamie" Cyrus Stewart is the front-man of the American musical group Xiu Xiu , a former front-man of IBOPA and Ten in the Swear Jar and a current member of Former Ghosts. He was also a member of 7 Year Rabbit Cycle which has since disbanded...
– vocals - Eric Corson – vocals, engineering
- Jherek Bischoff – vocals, trombone, double bass
- Izaak Mills – saxophone, flute
- Samantha Boshnack – trumpet, flugel horn
- John GoodmansonJohn GoodmansonJohn Goodmanson is an American recording engineer and indie rock record producer.-Selected discography:*Aiden "Conviction " *Simple Plan "Crash and Burn"...
– production, recording, mixing - Guy Davie – mastering