Romance Is Boring is the third studio album by Welsh indie pop band Los Campesinos!, released on 26 January 2010 via Wichita and Arts & Crafts.

Produced by John Goodmanson, the album's maximalist production, unconventional structure and particularly demoralising themes marked a departure from the band's previous twee pop sound.

Frontman Gareth Paisey describes the album as lyrically focusing on "the death and decay of the human body, sex, lost love, mental breakdown, football and, ultimately, that there probably isn’t a light at the end of the tunnel".

Upon release in January 2010, the record peaked at number 92 on the UK Albums Chart and received widespread critical acclaim, appearing on the annual lists of music publications including DIY and The Line of Best Fit.

[2] In 2009, they performed a 21-show tour across North America alongside punk band Titus Adronicus,[3] and began to play at bigger venues including at the music festivals Lollapalooza and Coachella in the same year.

[4] After recording of Romance Is Boring had finished, founding keyboardist Aleksandra Berditchevskaia announced she would be amicably leaving the band in August 2009 to continue her studies.

The album was recorded in the United States from January to June 2009 in two studios: Carriage House in Stamford, Connecticut, and Two Sticks Audio in Seattle, Washington.

[7]Lead guitarist Tom Bromley said the creative process for Romance Is Boring would often begin with him recording a demo and sending it to the six other members– specifically, frontman Gareth Paisey to create vocal ideas, and violinist Harriet Coleman to tinker with string arrangements.

[2] Going into production, Gareth Paisey said it was the first time the band had attempted to create a cohesive, full album with running musical and lyrical themes.

[8] The purpose was to have verses develop and be different each time and to give the songs as a whole a number of dimensions that will reveal themselves slowly through repeated listens.Jordan Sargent of PopMatters said the album "represents how sonic exploration can actually go right".

[9] Writing for NME, Lisa Wright said the album is "incredibly structurally cohesive" and "blows anything they’ve previously released out of the water in terms of textural intricacy, technical prowess and general experimentation".

[10] Rob Hakimian of The Line of Best Fit continued, that despite the "when the verses are in-your-face and unhospitable, the songs glide into beautifully anthemic choruses, where the melodies shine clear and bright".

It was backed with "Too Many Flesh Suppers", an unreleased song Paisey described as "the biggest departure from anything [the band had] done before" and the "darkest thing [they had] ever recorded, sonically and lyrically.

"[34] Tony Heywood of London magazine MusicOMH concluded "Romance Is Boring is a triumph, a glistening, breathless success", writing the band were "at the peak of their considerable powers".

[43] Hakimian wrote that the record "set a path for what was to come in their music in the following years" – Paisey agreed, claiming that he finds Sick Scenes (2017) to be more similar to their 2010 output compared to their debut, Hold on Now, Youngster...

[44] In 2020, Joe Goggins for The Skinny wrote that Romance Is Boring was a "unsung cornerstone of the emo revival" and a crucial contribution to the genre, citing its raw lyricism underrated beneath "oblique football references and the Heatonesque colloquialisms".