CD Odyssey Disc 1658: Alex Cameron

Welcome back gentle readers, where in the last few albums we’ve been taking a scroll through the twenties. The 2020s! Here’s one from last year.

Disc 1658 is…Oxy Music

Artist: Alex Cameron

Year of Release: 2022

What’s up with the Cover?  Compared to a lot of Alex Cameron covers, this guy looks positively normal. Unlike Jumping the Shark and Forced Witness he doesn’t present as a low-level street thug, and unlike Miami Memory, he’s not a shirtless psychotic.

Which is not to say he does not look psychotic. He definitely looks psychotic. I’m just saying it’s a step up. Psychotic, but wearing a shirt.

How I Came To Know It: I have been an Alex Cameron fan since 2019, and have busily dug into his catalogue since. I decided to give this album a go when it came out.

How It Stacks Up: I have four Alex Cameron albums. Of those four, “Oxy Music” comes in at…#4. Someone had to be last. Also, since there is (for now) the last Alex Cameron album in my collection, here’s a handy recap:

1. Miami Memory: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1462)
2. Forced Witness: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1477)
3. Jumping the Shark: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 1589)
4. Oxy Music: 3 stars (reviewed right here)

Rating: 3 stars

Alex Cameron’s early records are conceptual pieces built around a narrator who is a sort of failed actor/failed singer sleaze ball. It is awesome to listen to these stories, and even when the character is despicable, it is fun to look in on their squalid lives.

On “Oxy Music” Cameron shifts his creatives focus a few degrees, and explores drug culture in America, and the characters that inhabit it. Cameron matches up the production decisions on the record to a warm bath of synth and horn that matches the subject matter well. Some criticized his approach but having just given this record a good five or so listens, I can confirm for you that these critics are wrong. This production is built on empty happiness – and thus a big part of the metaphor that is getting explored.

It helps that Cameron can write a pop hook with a skill that is matched by few. Like him or hate him, these tunes are toe tappers, often in innovative ways you may not have heard before. Oxy Music also follows up on the strong vocal performance of 2019’s “Miami Memory” with more solid singing. Cameron won’t blow your speakers out with his range or power, but he has a high tone that is breathy or skeevy as each lyric requires. He has the natural phrasing of an actor, which makes sense given the characters he inhabits.

The tunes, as the theme requires, feature a LOT of drug references. Obvious ones like “They’re telling me to hold the line/but these lines have got a hold on me” to the more obscure, like:

“I don't wanna sound like an A-hole
I don't want you to think I'm ungrateful
See the credit cards on the table?
Never try to hide in a K-hole”

The songs have a dreamy quality that evokes the drug use itself, tinged with sadness and disconnection that comes with addiction. Cameron also manages to find time for his usual devil-may-care social commentary. By devil-may-care, Cameron doesn’t worry too much which side of a debate he’ll come out on, content with saying it and daring someone to be offended. “Sara Jo” and “Cancel Culture” both explore topics while tucked safely within characters that are not him. The listener can still take offence at the art itself, as Cameron no doubt welcomes.

The record doesn’t explore a lot of new ground, and at nine songs/33 minutes of running length it needed a little bit more meat on the bone. The only long song on the record is the title track, which drags a bit, but can be forgiven since it features the killer vocals of Sleaford Mods’ singer Jason Williamson.

“Oxy Music” doesn’t break a ton of new ground, but it isn’t often music gives you a deep dive into drug culture from the perspective of the addict where it is performance art. It was refreshing to enjoy an album on the subject and not feel like I was taking advantage of an artist actually going through the experiences, as is usually the case.

If the album reads a little disingenuous because of that, well, at least no one got hurt and these are some quality pop tunes along the way.

Best tracks: Best Life, Sara Jo, K. Hole

CD Odyssey Disc 1589: Alex Cameron

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

CD Odyssey Disc 1477: Alex Cameron

Apologies for the longer interlude between reviews, Gentle Reader. A long weekend reduced the amount of music listening time I had to meet the conditions of Rule #4.

Disc 1477 is…. Forced Witness

Artist: Alex Cameron

Year of Release: 2017

What’s up with the Cover? Alex Cameron looks like a skeevy street dealer here. Of course he won’t be selling any drugs with all those people filming him through the window. You might want to take your business down a deserted side alley, Alex. There’s a reason they do that.

How I Came To Know It: I got into Alex Cameron through his 2019 album, “Miami Memory” and this was just me drilling backward through his catalogue.

How It Stacks Up: I have three Alex Cameron albums. Of the three, I put “Forced Witness” in at #2, just a hair behind “Miami Memory” (reviewed at Disc 1462).

Ratings: 4 stars

“Forced Witness” represents a transition in Alex Cameron’s sound. He is beginning to leave behind the synth/organ approach on his first record but has not fully transitioned to the fuller instrumentation of 2019’s “Miami Memory”. The result is a delightful blend of electronica and seventies stadium rock, with a side of funk, disco, and a healthy dose of eighties pop.

Cameron has an ear for a pop hook, and the ones on “Forced Witness” have an anthemic quality that is amplified by the organ-forward arrangements. It is danceable, and fun and even though the subject matter is often dark and gritty, the music has a celebratory quality that will fool you otherwise.

The tunes also feature a lot of collaborator Roy Molloy’s saxophone. With the pop undercurrent to these tunes that saxophone risks running into painful eighties solos, but Cameron rarely lets that happen. Sure, it gets a bit much on “Stranger’s Kiss” but that song is rescued by virtue of being a duet with Angel Olsen, whose brilliance more than makes up for saxophone that – if I’m being fair – only goes on for maybe a bar too long, and only does so twice. Elsewhere on the record, Molloy’s sax shows a few flashes here and there, but only enough to make the songs feel more noble.

I’ve read that before Alex Cameron bared his soul on “Miami Memory” his albums tended to be written in the persona of a marginally employable musician of dubious moral character. While the line between Cameron and this character can feel fuzzy to the uninformed listener, there is definitely a whole lot of this greaseball character on “Forced Witness.” Listeners should enjoy these songs as stories, not autobiographies.

Cameron’s alter ego may appear obvious on the surface, but he hints at a lot of nuance underneath. The songs that were most “persona forward” had me wanting to see a movie loosely based on them. The character has the soul of poet, but the mind of a sexual deviant and the impulse control of a criminal.

Even when this guy is riding an emotional high, Cameron peppers the songs with imagery that suggests a lot of his victories will be fleeting or pyrrhic at best, with the potential to end in jail time. “Runnin’ Outta Luck” features a chorus with a rising celebratory melody, but with lyrics like:

“I'm a man on a mission, you're a stripper out of luck
And we're good in the back seat but we're better up front
And there's blood on my knuckles 'cause there's money in the trunk”

…you know that some combination of sirens and flashing lights are in their future. Still, I appreciate that oddly romantic “we’re better up front.” Something bad has happened, but the narrator and that stripper? Hey – they’re true partners.

I also love the oblivious bravado of a song like “Marlon Brando” where our anti-hero claims he feels like “Marlon Brando, circa 1999” and delivers less than reassuring pickup lines like “I'm pretty cooked but my shit is far from dead” while threatening the woman’s current boyfriend with physical violence. It left me hoping that the “stripper out of luck” from earlier comes to her senses at the next gas station.

The album is replete with clever turns of phrase, but even after multiple listens it didn’t get old and tired as sometimes happens. This is because the album isn’t kitschy, and while the main character in all of this is a total putz, he’s a damned interesting putz. He gets in pointless fights, surfs a whole lot of porn, and consistently thinks he’s way more awesome than he is.

Yet, Cameron lets you see this guy from the vantage point of inside his head; a warped perspective of the world behind rose coloured glasses and bloodshot eyes. Or as he narrates on “Politics of Love”, “The thought of this being wrong/Never had crossed my mind.” The result of this oblivious douchebaggery is a surprisingly compelling train wreck, attached to some genuinely catchy tunes.

Best tracks: Candy May, Country Figs, Runnin’ Outta Luck, Marlon Brando, Politics of Love

CD Odyssey Disc 1462: Alex Cameron

I’m a little run down after a lot of late days at work, so this long weekend couldn’t have come at a better time.

Disc 1462 is…. Miami Memory

Artist: Alex Cameron

Year of Release: 2019

What’s up with the Cover?  Having been rejected a table at the local Appleby’s for having no shirt and (we assume) no shoes, Alex has returned to his room to stare wistfully off into space. While the particular expression on his face could mean a lot of things, I’m glad we can’t see his hands.

Behind Alex one of my least favourite art forms – the collage – treats us to a panoply of images that presumably represent memories.

How I Came To Know It: I read a review on Paste Magazine and it sounded interesting, so I checked it out. Often you gotta put in your own legwork to find new artists.

How It Stacks Up: This is my only Alex Cameron album, so it can’t really stack up. However, I was so inspired by it I went through his back catalogue this week and I’m now on the hunt for two more, so a stack shall soon form.

Ratings: 4 stars

Every writer strives for complete openness and emotional vulnerability. Many claim it with the carefree nonchalance of the pass-card that comes with an office job. However, take it from someone who falls short again and again, the depth of vulnerability required to be a great writer takes a lot of fortitude; something Alex Cameron has to spare. He also has a natural talent for storytelling and writing pop hooks. Put it all together and you get an amazing record.

Cameron started out using a lot of synthesizer and electronic sounds, and on each successive album he’s drifted more and more into the organic. “Miami Memory” is his third and most recent effort, and while it is still driven a lot by piano and organ, the production feels the most ‘real’ of anything he’s done to date.

It’s stories also feel more intimate and introspective than ever before. The tunes are still upbeat, with melodies that float along effortlessly. At times they even have a dance pop feel, but they are grounded in stories that blend autobiographical content with fiction to the point where I wasn’t sure which stories were about Cameron, and which were about characters he’d created. In the end, it didn’t matter.

“Stepdad” recounts a painful conversation a man is having with his stepchild, as he packs his bags at the end of a relationship. With the pain of a nasty breakup lurking in the background, the man tries to leave some good advice before he’s gone:

“And now that you know why I'm leavin'
And your mum's yelling out that she hopes I don't come back
Of course she would say that

“Don't forget what I told you about your demons
They're just thoughts in your head while you sleep no more than that
Now fetch my duffle bag”

The man’s eventual advice to his step-kid is “treat your mom better”. The song is the most “synthy” on the record, with a simple organ call-and-answer bit that invites you to dance, even as Cameron’s words navigate one of life’s toughest moments.

On “Divorce” Cameron explores breakup from the more traditional perspective. Here the artificial organ is replaced by a more natural piano. The narrator dares his partner to call it quits, but with lines like:

“I got friends in Kansas City with a motherfucking futon couch
If that's how you want to play it
I'm drinking in the dark because my battery's all ran out
All you got to do is say it – Divorce.”

It is clear the dare is already a foregone conclusion. As divorce songs go, this one is up there in the stratosphere with Liz Phair’s “Divorce Song”.

The album is incredibly sex positive. The title track is one of the most beautiful love songs in pop music. Alternating between sexually explicit scenes and just the joy in sharing time and experience with your partner, this is a tune that takes the often tired structure of a love song to a new level.

On “Far From Born Again,” Cameron defends sex workers, making it clear how a woman makes a living – or uses her body – is exactly no one’s business but her own. Amen. The song also features an incredible pop hook, and some first-rate phrasing.

Speaking of great phrasing, remember “The Boys Are Back in Town”? I couldn’t get it out of my head while listening to Cameron’s artful rebuttal, “Bad for the Boys” which (I believe) has both a title and composition deliberately designed to evoke the Thin Lizzy tune. Cameron talks about how tough it is on all those bros out there bemoaning how they have to watch how they act and behave these days. No harassing women, no saying whatever the hell they want and even drops one line reminiscent of Springsteen’s “Glory Days”:

“Handsome Cory and his high school glory
No one wants to hear those fucking stories.”

By the end he confirms what you’ve been suspecting all along: he doesn’t feel bad for boys like this at all. The record is full of non-PC imagery and discussions on difficult topics but Cameron’s message to these boys is pretty clear: “Grow the fuck up and be accountable for your behaviour.” A fine reminder for every group of boys who have ever hit the bars for a night on the town, ever.

“Miami Memory” is an album I knew I liked, but I had no idea how much until I took the deep delve the CD Odyssey demands. Given his upward trajectory, I can’t wait to hear what he comes out with next.

Best tracks: Stepdad, Miami Memory, Far From Born Again, Bad for the Boys, End is Nigh, Divorce