Album Review: Strange Love

To describe Hamish Cameron as an ‘experienced musician’ would be the very definition of understatement. The list of contributions and musical situations is a long one indeed for this much travelled Taranaki bass player and writer. The creation of Strange Love was motivated by the turbulent times of the beginning of the 2020’s and is his first substantive release as a solo artist.

Of first note, is the high level of craft in the songwriting. Musically, the structures and harmonic progressions reflect a lifetime of musical experience. The lyrical content tends to favour the introspective and melancholic and Cameron takes real care to phrase melodies that set the words off nicely. The opening line for Kooky, for example:

“If I’d have known loving you is like falling off my bike

I’d have moved down to dioxin town

…years ago”

grabs your attention through melody and through words – it is a really effective blend, and it remains consistent through the whole album.

Added to that, right from the opening title track it is apparent that there are assured, experienced and highly skilled musicians involved. Not only in the playing- just listen to the rhythm section alone-but in the arranging, production, melodic work and lyrical content. As the album develops, a mood of melancholy and reflection pervades, with tempos tending toward mid to slow. This affords the kind of space that really favours the skills of the musicians involved. Consider just the instrumental tag of Ghosts: Acoustic picking and strumming, subtle electric guitar washes, brushed snare drum, clever vocal arranging. The timbres are carefully chosen for their effectiveness in matching the mood, which means that everywhere your ears go, there is something more to listen to. This song is by no means an exception, and every return listen rewards with more to discover.

Kudos, then, to the team of Cameron himself, the production and playing of Sam Johnson, and the consistently high-quality drumming from Rob Ju. They really do excel here, and the contributions from Victoria Girling-Butcher and Paul Atkins are the kind high-quality that one would expect.

A stand out track is Road Runs Out. Built – initially – on some magical rhythm section work, with the phrasing of the bass drum, modulating metrically across two bars of 7/4 never once losing the bossa nova groove. Then, listen to how the opening melody sits perfectly – naturally – over the top. Then! there is complete change in feel at the second half which evokes Steve Hackett’s work during Genesis’ Trick of the Tail/ Wind and Wuthering period- or the kind of thing Tim Finn used to do so well in early Split Enz. Words don’t really do this justice, frankly. The whole piece flows with kind of inevitability that characterises the very best kind of composition work. At the risk of sounding effusive, it’s that good.

Musical experience infuses this collection of songs. It’s the mark of a good writer that they give the players enough space to contribute and it’s a mark of seasoned players that they know just what to add and where to subtract. Every such decision on this album has been the right one and it’s something of a triumph, really. Strange Love is easily one of the most high quality releases that these ears have reviewed for Muzic.NZ. It’s a highly recommended listen.