Pitchfork

This is how you spell "Haha ha, Los Campesinos! destroyed the hopes and dreams of a generation of faux-romantics." Of course, in a good way. On the first single from debut LP Waited Up 'Til It Was Light, Birmingham, England's Johnny Foreigner bring to bear many of the same 1990s indie-rock and indie-pop touchstones that bolstered their Cardiff-based former tourmates' precocious, contagiously giddy Hold on Now, Youngster..., except these dudes aren't that innocent. "Salt, Peppa and Spinderella" is steeped in sexual intrigue; guitarist Alexei Berrow and bassist Kelly Southern trade vocals about alibis and hunger instead of the Los Camp camp's stationery-as-foreplay. Berrow even borrows Gareth Campesinos!' tendency to break off into spoken-word monologues, but production from hard-rock vet Machine in New Jersey helps the bands instrumentals attain a moody emotional intensity that's closer to Braid than Heavenly.

The video is also stylish without being too cute. The lyrics are spelled out, as in the superb clip earlier this year for Mountain Goats' "Sax Rohmer #1", written on Post-It notes on the band members' mouths to illustrate the dialogue between the song's characters. Quick aerial camerawork matches the urgency of the music. "I think I liked you more when you were worse," Johnny Foreigner sing. You! Me! Watching!

[from Waited Up 'Til It Was Light; out now in the UK on Best Before and due October in the U.S. on Nettwerk]