Just when you think there’s no-one out there bold enough to peddle smart, intelligent guitar pop anymore, a band invariably come out of the woodwork to prove you wrong. And it remains a wonderfully satisfying feeling when they decide to do so.
Enter seriously above-average North Wales quartet CAMERA and their deliciously engaging debut album ‘Ashes And Dim Light’ which smoulders and sways in a rather fabulous fashion throughout. It’s heavy on supposedly old-fashioned buzzwords like ‘passion’ and ‘integrity’ and is simply one of those intensely personal, well-executed albums there should be room for regardless of prevailing trends.
Great team players rather than flashy individuals, Camera have this chorus-heavy, winsome song-writing thing off to a T. Occasionally, they are hard-edged and strident, as on gripping opener ‘Where You Are’ – all see-sawing guitars, ominous basslines from Ben Trow and Matthew Nicholls’ charismatic and scuffed vocals which carry a hint of Chris Helme – while songs like the whiplash guitar-riddled ‘Hurt’ and the knife-edge excitement of ‘Caught Me Unaware’ demonstrate they can handle urgency in fine style too.
Mostly, though, what Camera do best is sway rather than rock, and boy they do it well. Often, Neil Finn hovers like a spectre at the song-writing feast, but his echoes are never horribly derivative and songs like ‘Going Nowhere’, the sad’n’blue slow-burn of ‘ All You, All Day’ and the exquisitely passionate ‘There’s No Way’ are bittersweet, atmospheric beauties one and all.
|
Indeed, another thing that attracts you to ‘Ashes & Dim Light’ like the proverbial moth to the flame is that it’s a truly consistent album, pretty much devoid of any glaring filler and resolutely firm in its’ attention to gently anthemic choruses without ever spilling over into Coldplay-style whimper’n’bluster. Songs like the chromatic leanings of ‘All The Time’, the chiming, crystalline ‘Out On The Water’ and the music-box keyboards and fragile send-off that is the closing ‘Tell Me What It Is’ all have a natural, unhurried grace which creeps up and embraces rather than whacking you over the head. And in this context, that’s just the ticket.
‘Ashes & Dim Light’, then, is an excellent record and played with such confidence and maturity it’s hard to believe it’s a debut album you’re flirting and ultimately falling in love with. Camera are contenders focussing on our hearts and on this form they’ll soon be developing on a much wider scale.
|
