Los Campesinos!

“A heart of stone / rind so tough it’s crazy / that’s why they call me the avocado, baby,” frontman Gareth Paisey yelps over frantic scratch guitar on “Avocado, Baby,” the second single off Welsh indie rockers Los Campesinos!’s fifth LP, “No Blues.” The tongue in cheek lyrics come right after an extended metaphor likening Gareth’s ruined love life to Roman tragedy, and the juxtaposition of the two highlights the mantra at the heart of Los Campesinos’s music: write songs for sad bastards who just want to dance, or cry, or both.

“Glue Me” proves the only time “No Blues” surrenders its infectious energy to balladry. Despite being, well, gloomy, it still builds to a hopelessly catchy end hook that packs a melodic and emotional punch comparable to those found on fan favorite cuts “A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State” and “The Sea Is a Good Place to Think of the Future.”

Though the guitar work is catchy throughout and the drums bang out fittingly danceable rhythms, it’s “No Blue’s” stellar production with its electronic flourishes and choruses of hazy background vocals (even the odd cheerleader squad) that transforms the songs into the lush pieces of indie pop only hinted at in the groups last album, 2011’s aptly titled “Hello Sadness.”

Tracks like “What Death Leaves Behind,” “Cemetery Gaits” and the aforementioned “Avocado, Baby” crackle with the energy and melodrama fans of Los Campesinos! have come to expect. Even the uninitiated should have little problem embracing the album; it’s essentially the most pop Los Campesinos! have ever been thanks to its newfound reliance on bubbly synth lines.

With its cathartic energy and catchy melodies, “No Blues” finds the band sounding closer to pop-punk than tween pop, more Brand New than Belle and Sebastian. That’s a good thing; rarely does sadness sound this inviting, and rarely has growing up sounded this much fun.