Your reviewer missed out on THE HIDDEN CAMERAS' recent second album "Mississauga Goddam" ( hint, hint, nice press department), but if "I Believe In The Good Of Life" is anything to go by, then it seems the standard of their debut has been emphatically maintained.
Much has been made of the outsize Toronto troop's sexual preferences and their penchant for playing gigs in bizarre locations (I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the one they did at the Jewish Old Peoples' home), but at the end of the day, it would all count for Diddley were the music not in place as well.
"I Believe In The Good Of Life" again proves that bespectacled lead Camera Joel Gibb is the unlikely nerdy bloke with his finger on one of the purest pop pulses being registered right now. The taut, wiry guitars lead into an evangelical, tambourine-heavy pop tune that's heavy on the melody and laced with lovely, but never ostentatious strings and it doesn't outstay its' welcome for a second. Excellent.
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So, if you're looking for wry, literate semi-orchestral folk-pop delivered with the straightest of bats, then look no further than this buncha crossdressing, homosexual Canadians who prefer to gig in churches and porn cinemas rather than regular venues any day of the week. Sorted. Good to know the weird can still turn pro in these grey modern times eh?
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