Dorks And Losers

I per­son­ally encour­age artists and musi­cians to pur­sue side projects in addi­tion to their reg­u­lar or main gigs. Some peo­ple need to explore their cre­ativ­ity that isn’t in line with what they’re cur­rently doing.

For musi­cians like Jack White, side projects seem to be his lifeblood (in addi­tion to The White Stripes, see The Racon­teurs and The Dead Weather). For oth­ers, side projects are sim­ply just that.

A Camp — the side project of The Cardi­gans front­woman Nina Pers­son, Persson’s hus­band Nathan Lar­son of Shud­der To Think, and Atomic Swing lead singer Niclas Frisk — seems to have both formed and restarted at random.

Orig­i­nally a duo, A Camp added Lar­son for the band’s follow-up to their crit­i­cally acclaimed 2001 self-titled debut.

For Cardi­gans fans, on one hand Colo­nia resem­bles more of the band’s lat­ter works than their ear­lier Amer­i­can radio-friendly “My Favourite Game”-esque songs. How­ever, on the other hand, Colo­nia show­cases Persson’s lovely and pleas­ant vocals that prove to be so expres­sive and awe gaz­ing in the album’s pop-filled form.

“The Crown­ing” opens as a bright and rev­e­la­tory tune before the sar­casm fully envelopes: “Hear how the hearts are pound­ing / We’re all wit­ness­ing the crown­ing / Of your big bleed­ing head.” The wry lyri­cism works well with Persson’s infec­tious power pop voice. She’s dom­i­nant on the lover’s lament “Love Has Left The Room” and even more so on the quirky bal­lad “Stronger Than Jesus”.

Colo­nia is at its strongest when it main­tains a min­i­mal­ist tone and relies on Pers­son to carry the melody, which hap­pens mostly dur­ing the album’s first half. Pers­son is some­what drowned out in “My Amer­ica,” and while the final two mostly instru­men­tal tracks aren’t bad you get to a point at each one that you spend wait­ing to hear her voice again.

I guess the band spoils us. Much of the album is filled with Persson’s words that we grow to expect to hear them all the time. Of course, A Camp is much more than just Pers­son or so I’d like to believe.

[pho­tos via Net­twerk Music Group]
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Track list:

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. It’s Not Easy To Be Human
12. The Weed Had Got There First

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