Labels: Deep Elm
Review by: Dan Baker
‘Think the epitome of maturity’ is the description of Camber’s new release by Deep Elm. In England, ‘maturity’ is a euphemism for when on the way to the recording studio, the guitarists broke their distortion pedals so all the songs sound like Oasis, but fortunately the same connotations haven’t reached the shores of that big land accross the pond.
Anyway, “I’ve been there” is without doubt a far maturer record than their debut. Better playing, better songwriting and well, better songs. They take influences from all the greats from Promise Ring to Mineral, but at the same time creating a uniquely original sound. I think the originality comes from the occassional discordant guitar played on top of a beautiful melody, and while some cynics would say how the vocals are somewhat reminiscent of Sunny Day Real Estate and Mineral, singer Barry Lott isnt afraid of the occassional harsh aggression which i always thought was missing from the aforemetioned bands.
This new release is one of the finest releases of the year so far, pure ear candy. And as for the song ’38th and Eighth’, just forget about it.