If the title alone doesn’t give it away, it only takes a cursory glance at the tracklisting to know Hello Sadness isn’t going to be the feel-good album of the year. Not that Los Campesinos! have ever really been all sunshine and rainbows—they have a knack for putting biting lyrics to upbeat melodies—but they’ve always been a good listen regardless of subject matter, and this effort, inspired by a break-up, is no different.

Musically, Hello Sadness continues where predecessor Romance Is Boring left off—guitars, keys, strings, and horns—albeit with less sonic experimentation and instantly catchy songs. “By Your Hand” is the most initially agreeable of the bunch; a bouncy, keys-based track that nods at their twee roots, but the rest have a greater sense of melancholy, revealing their merit with repeated listens (“Every Defeat A Divorce (Three Lions),” “To Tundra”).

The lyrics are fresh, not in the sense that they bring anything new to the game, but that singer Gareth Campesinos! rewrote everything from scratch following a break-up with his then-girlfriend just two weeks before recording began. They’re not as consistently sharp as on previous releases, but this better serves the subject matter—it’s raw, unprocessed sentiment delivered in as close as you can get to real time. Anger? Check. Confusion? Check. Self-loathing? Check. Spite? Check. An ember of hope for a rekindling of the flame? Check. It’s not fancy, it’s not profound, but Hello Sadness  is a cathartic and welcome release.