What is Jumping The Shark? Concise but loose-limbed character sketches -- perhaps of people you wouldn't bring home to your mother (unless your mother is one of those types) -- narrated in a intimate baritone over a sparse electronic canvas by a man who formerly assumed the costume and character of an aged lounge singer when performing (he no longer effects the transformation, but the album art is of the artist in costume). Welcome to the world of Sydney's Alex Cameron, formerly of the electronic project Seekae. The tales dig deep in the grime of the downtrodden and failed people on the fringes with a clear-eyed perspective, but the phrasing is poetic and the delivery is breezy and engaging without being dismissive of the subjects. And it must be said that part of the connection here is the listener's uncertainty of the extent to which the songs are stories by Alex Cameron, or stories about Alex Cameron. Not that it really matters; an exploration of failure is something to which all honest men and women can relate.
Jumping The Shark may not sound like anything else you are listening to, but take my advice: Once you listen to it, you keep going back to it. This record is a dead solid keeper.
Website
Bandcamp for Jumping the Shark
Secretly Canadian page for Jumping The Shark
Alex Cameron Tour Dates:
Fri. Sep. 9 - Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West %
Sat. Sep. 10 - Nashville, TN @ Exit/In %
Sun. Sep. 11 - Cincinnati, OH @ Woodward Theater %
Mon. Sep. 12 - Millvale, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre %
Wed. Sep. 14 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer %
Thu. Sep. 15 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club %
Sat. Sep. 17 - New York, NY @ Webster Hall %
Sun. Sep. 18 - Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw %
Tue. Sep. 20 - Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair %
% with Angel Olsen
* with Unknown Mortal Orchestra
# with Mac DeMarco
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