"Hold On Now, Youngster . . ." by Los Campesinos! - download the album in digital format or preorder the US CD release at their Web site.

Listening to Los Campesinos! "Hold On Now, Youngster . . ." is like being in the bathroom at a concert and overhearing all the tedious details of a young hipster relationship gone sour.

You're a little uncomfortable being privy to such personal information, but are interested in spite of yourself. Also, you feel a little old. Ultimately, however, you're waiting for them to leave so you can come out of the stall and go listen to something else.

Welsh indie rockers Los Campesinos! mix the more standard guitar, bass, and drums with violin, jangly keyboards, and glockenspiel, adding a twinkly urgency to their songs about the complications of hipster love. Vocal lines consistently overlap (like in "Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats") and sometimes even shout over each other, adding to the album's overall feel of frustration and frenzy.

It's as though we've caught them coming out of a particularly bad relationship with a significant other who never listened to them, and now that that person is finally gone, it's going to be a while before the torrent of words and emotions slows down.

Even though the next significant other has yet to appear on the horizon in all their idealistic glory, there is a sense that future relationships are inevitable and will be just as disappointing. As the band sings in "We Are All Accelerated Readers," "I was sick in my mouth because of the fear of the scent of the next girlfriend." It's like they're getting everything off their chest as fast as possible before the next love interest comes along and tells them to be quiet and behave.

For those of us who don't run with the hipster crowd, "Hold On Now Youngster . . ." is a momentarily fascinating peek into a different world, a place where people discuss which "Breakfast Club" character they'd be ["I'd be the one that dies (no one dies.) Well then, what's the point?" - also from "We Are All Accelerated Readers"] and the fact that your girlfriend can't seem to finish writing any of the novels she starts is a deal-breaker ("This Is How You Spell 'Hahaha, We Destroyed The Hopes And Dreams of A Generation' ").

Eventually, though, we return to our own realities with their more mundane concerns about gas prices and the like and pick up a CD with more universal themes, something that gives perspective to life in general and offers reassurance instead of panickedly holding up a magnifying glass to a very specific lifestyle and situation. Like they sing in ". . . And We Exhale And Roll Our Eyes In Unison," "Four sweaty boys with guitars tell me nothing about my life." 

Recommended track: "Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats"