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DVDfever.co.uk – A Camp: Colonia CD reviewElly Roberts reviews
Reveal Records
- Released: Feb 2009
- Rating: 8/10
- Vote and comment on this album:View Comments
Cool chamber pop from Swedish bombshell.
Its been some eight years since A Camps debut – long overdue Colonia is well worth the wait.
Ex- Cardigans singer Nina Persson and guitarist hubby Nathan Larson of now defunct Shudder To Think have combined to produce a magnificent follow-up.
This musical side project came about during a break in The Cardigans touring in 2001, and again after the band ceased promotional activities following a tour of South America, Persson decided to revisit A Camp.
During a trip to Africa with a girlfriend, she came up with the idea of an old fashioned empire, hence Colonia, which spawned the idea of the decadence of old kings and queens, pre-war Americana, the opium den to the Belgian Congo, the starlit Namibian desert to the gas lit streets of Victorian New York.
Unlike the overt joy-laden pop of her main band, Persson has become a lot more reflective and mature in her writing, probing the human condition and spirit past and present, with Colonia allowing her imagination to run riot spanning many cultural and historical themes with all her fantasies summed up in the word – Colonia. To that aim, shes very much achieved it with flying colours.
The clunking piano of The Crowning leads to mild drama as she paints a picture of a party in 1699 toasting the crowning of a useless king, of sorts. Its a great start.Then the theme changes to colonialism, as she takes a swipe Belgians invading the Congo, and despite the often doomed and unclear lyrics theres an uplifting tone with honeyed vocals.Bear On A Beach is quite abstract lyrically, like much of the songs actually, Persson opts for a poetic approach. It jollies along at a snails pace with her voice being the main feature, interrupted occasionally by birdsong.
The first grand offering is the sweeping and stirring Love Has Left The Room massive strings add to the melancholic drama of lost love which brings out her best vocal performance. The comes the albums jewel Here Are Many Wild Animals, a Spector-ish sounding 60s blast with Ronettes-like backups, though it has an edgy and menacing crescendo.This is followed by a quirky look at an existence in Chinatown accompanied by some magnificent music.
The only attempt at an out-and-out pop song is the perky My America, a tale about being star struck with swooning lyrics like Oo-e-oo-ee, Im gonna be your girl, confirming her rock star infatuation.I Signed The Line is about contractual hassles, spouting in exasperation, I signed the line / I realise a lot of lies / were written in letters.. delving into a chamber-pop template.Its Not Easy To Be Human is a short piece (eight lines of lyrics) about the sad state of humanity with some sumptuous classical string arrangements turning it into a mini-opus.
The verdict Bring on A Camp #3.
Weblinks:acamp.net /myspace.com/acamptheband
The full list of tracks included are :
1. The Crowning
2. Stronger Than Jesus
3. Bear On The Beach
4. Love Has Left The Room
5. Golden Teeth And Silver Medals
6. Here Are Many Wild Animals
7. Chinatown
8. My America
9. Eau De Colonia
10. I Signed The Line
11. Its Not Easy To Be Human
12. The Weed Had Got Here FirstView the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus= 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.