I spent a lot of the past week on the road for work, and as a result I didn’t get a chance to review this next record until today. On the plus side, it meant I got to listen to it a lot. The worst part of the CD Odyssey is constantly having to bid adieu to a record and move on to the next, so I take a little extra exposure to a good record as a welcome accident.
Of course, I could technically listen to a record as long as I want, but then how would there be more reviews for you to read?
Disc 1589 is…. Jumping the Shark
Artist: Alex Cameron
Year of Release: 2013
What’s up with the Cover? Alex Cameron, done up in his sleazeball failed actor persona. This picture screams, “I coulda bin somebody!” Yeah, and we’re going to hear all about it as we listen to the record…
How I Came To Know It: This was just me drilling backward through Alex Cameron’s discography after I discovered him through his 2019 release “Miami Memory”.
How It Stacks Up: I have four Alex Cameron albums, with “Jumping the Shark” landing at #3.
Ratings: 3 stars
On each successive record, Alex Cameron has added a bit of additional production or instrumentation but on his first, 2013’s “Jumping the Shark” you get Alex Cameron with no frills, bells or whistles. It is just him, a synthesizer and an organ.
This approach sets a very electronica type backdrop, and you’d feel like you were at some late-night club scene with a lot of flashing strobe lights if it weren’t for Cameron’s stellar lyrics, painting a story well beyond what your average minor dance tune might employ. It keeps your frontal lobes as interested in what’s going on as your amygdala grooves along with the fuzzy beats.
If anything it keeps your frontal lobes much more engaged overall, as the synth sounds on “Jumping the Shark” are very basic. For the most part, they are a loop of relatively few notes, designed to set a vibe and then withdraw to the back of the room so you can pay attention to Cameron’s tales of dirtbaggery and woe.
The best of these by a good measure is “Real Bad Lookin,” the first of Cameron’s brilliant exploration of the lowlifes and drunks you meet in cheap, rundown bars. This song featuring one woman who is decidedly not a paragon of virtue. I love this verse:
“My
husband's at work, my baby's in a Daewoo sauna
I hold my breath when I check, just to see that she isn't a goner
The
little dream sits there, she's like a fly in a jar
Yeah who the hell are they to tell me that I can't leave my kid in the car”
Earlier verses make it clear this is all happing mid-day while the woman gets drunk in the pub.
On “Gone South” his lyrics and delivery reminded me of something between Nick Cave and the Handsome Family. They are apocalyptic and teetering off the edge of sanity:
“I spent some time
making bird calls
But none responded out of fear
I dug myself a spider's hole, and it was hungry work
And then I ate from my geo-stash”
Who is this semi-feral, disturbed character scrabbling in the dirt and creeping about in the back country? Cameron never fills you in completely, and you are left to imagine how they came to be there, digging holes. Later, they also build a bear trap.
The central character theme gets explored on “The Comeback” where our anti-hero complains about how he once had a hit TV show that was later cancelled. If you’ve ever had someone bend your ear at a pub about how they’ve been hard done by (the story usually involves a lawyer and a stack of documents stuffed in the pockets of a thread-worn blazer) then you’ve also met this guy.
Through all these tales, Cameron’s synthesizer sets a competent backdrop, but don’t expect any musical genius here. He’s more storyteller than composer, and if you need a complex melody to see you through, this music is not for you. Sometimes I longed for his later albums where the music is a bit more developed, but most of the time I was happy to be absorbed into the tales of woe he spins so artfully.
Best tracks: Gone South, Real Bad Lookin, The Comeback
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