Album Review: Alex Cameron - Jumping The Shark

The most instantly disarming thing about Alex Cameron's debut solo is, well, pretty much everything. Cameron plays in Sydney's Seekae and, while they wouldn't necessarily be accused of taking themselves too seriously, they have kept a very low personality profile as band. Often playing in darkness on stage, only the most recent release of theirs has featured vocals at all, giving some slight insight into their collective personality. Cameron has launched a 'publicity' campaign to accompany the album including a website to rival the classic still-live Space Jam relic complete with 'Under Construction' graphic. His twitter profile mocks the game of celebrity. Even the name of the album suggests that it's all a laugh. All cool, except that even when taking the piss, this record is outstanding. The tracks are minimal, perhaps churned out quickly or lovingly crafted to hit this level of simplicity. After two fantastic low key pop tracks, the humour kicks in heavier on Real Bad Lookin but it's still a great song, full of hooks and covers some bleak issues. The Comeback is electro Springsteen and INTERNET is barely more than a synth line for most of the song – his voice and the lyrics are funny, sad and also telling.

Maybe Cameron is hiding behind the jokey elements which wouldn't be necessarily as obvious without the promo, but the songs are fantastic, the performance perfectly restrained and he keeps the whole thing so classy it's hard not to revel in it wholeheartedly.