With the likes of Dick Diver, Twerps, Bitch Prefect and Scott & Charlene's Wedding bringing out amazing records in the past two years, Australia has excellent, laconic, realist slacker pop well and truly covered. Hence the arrival of a new album from another likeminded act holds double-edged potential – it could be a good thing, or just more of the same.
Sydney's Camperdown & Out (featuring members of Royal Headache, Raw Prawn and Dead Farmers) present this conundrum in Couldn't Be Better. There are moments when the aesthetic seems forced – on Manly, the unfurnished sonic approach is as grating as the lyrics are amusingly relatable. The same goes for faux-tropical pop Tropics Of Capricorn, for as “I've been drinking and singing all day long… will you join with me” is drawled, it's hard to care either way.
But there are many moments that do work because the lyrics are innately positive; banal yet kindly amusing, championing the downtrodden. First single Down And Out is a sharp punch to the joy gland as the chant “Things couldn't be better/ You'll never be down and out/ Again” fortifies into a grin-inducing off-kilter mantra. Don't Have A Dog offers a lethargic existence of unemployment and poverty with a bizarrely flippant approach that makes such a situation seems almost attractive; Out Of Time is slightly more urgent in the pursuit of employment, yet with the line “He hasn't got time to stress and worry”, it's hard to gauge if listlessness is a bad thing.
The languid warble of Morphine Dream is a fitting end to an album that's so affectless yet enjoyable that liking it this much says more about you than this album ever gets around to doing.
