Labels: Deep Elm
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Sunny Day Real Estate!
Do you know what rules the most about being into music no-one sensible likes? It means you can actually buy the stuff. Like this weekend I went back to Norwich, and there, in it’s best record shop, was the Texas Is The Reason album. Why? I don’t know. Why did I buy the Promise Ring album in on vinyl which the same shop got in, way back in June thus altering my music buying habits so dramatically? I don’t know the answer to that either. And why did they have this Camber album in at the reduced price of 9 of your English pounds? 0 for 3, I’m stumped.
Emo tinged indie rock! Sunny Day Real Estate! There you go, don’t need to bother any more with this review, other than to say: Camber are any good. 9 songs here, spread over half an hour. If you heard them on a Deep Elm sampler, you’ll like this. Simple enough. They do all that neat rockin’ guitar playing that American indie rock bands do, yet so few of ours seem to have a clue. Switching effortlessly between the basic laidback vibe to the more powerful and driving emo rock at the drop of a hat, just check “Marking The Days”, Camber lay on you some stunningly nice tracks, without ever wimping out totally. But even if they did, I wouldn’t complain. The singer sounds pretty drifting and wussy (except when he gets loud), but it fits in perfectly.
Tough to pick best tracks, as it is, in the best sense of the word, an album. Nothing dramatically stands, out, you couldn’t pluck an obvious single from this one. Maybe title track “Beautiful Charade”, which given the chance and some ‘pop’ production (i.e. ironing out all the wrinkles which make it cool) would probably flatten the charts in one fell swoop.
Cool, rocking, emo lyrics, Sunny Day Real Estate, and worthy of your cash. Find and listen. Then worship at the temple of Deep Elm for getting this stuff into your hands.