First Spins: A Camp!

April 23rd, 2009

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What? Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of A Camp. I’m shocked. We can’t be friends anymore.

Okay, fine, I was tricking you. Unless you were a HUGE fan of Swedish pop-stars The Cardigans back in the day (the day being 1998) when they had mega-hits with “Love Fool” and “My Favourite Game”, you probably didn’t know that they released another two albums after Gran Turismo. Which means you also didn’t know that Nina Persson, their adorable vocalist, has a side project where she sings under the name A Camp. Luckily for everyone, we’re huge nerds here, and we keep track of everything (except where I left my keys this morning).

Although it’s already been out for two whole months in Sweden and Europe, A Camp’s second album Colonia is being released here on Tuesday, but we’ve got it here today as a First Spin for you to preview! Hurray!

Nina Persson is a capable enough vocalist in her own right, but on Colonia she gets a little instrumentation help from Atomic Swing’s Niclas Frisk, and Nathan Larson, Shudder to Think guitarist and Persson’s husband. The combination of their talents make A Camp’s efforts on this album seem to largely echo the music Persson released with The Cardigans, at least in style. Colonia is full of mellow and melodic pop songs that are easy to listen to, regardless of the song’s lyrics, which sometimes contrast with the sweet tones of the piano/xylophone/guitar, and Persson’s own lovely voice.

The songs are mostly written about love, although the first two tracks on the album might throw you off from that idea. Here Are Many Wild Animals starts with a handclap and an ooo-eee lead-in that immediately grabs the ear, even while Persson is singing about how “we live on a playground / Eating our young”. The Crowning is kinda about love, but only in the sense where it has to do to with heartbreak caused by an excessively proud… seventeenth century… gentleman. Who gets insulted in various ways throughout the song. Which is pretty fun to listen to.

The rest of the album is a well-layered group of songs that feature some word play, strings, flutes, gentle back-up choirs, an ode to Chinatown, and a delightful duet on “Golden Teeth and Silver Medals“. Even though Stronger than Jesus was released as a single in Sweden (don’t lose your cool, it’s about love being “stronger than Jesus” …’cause “it can kill anyone”), my favourite song of the bunch is Bear on a Beach, which conjures up images of a dreamy Alice-in-Wonderland-like girl who is “caught between the ocean and the bear upon the beach”. Okay, I never claimed it would make a lot of sense. But the song is so beautiful and gentle that it doesn’t really matter.

All in all, this album was a terrific surprise! Like fresh Cadbury Creme Eggs when it’s not even Easter, and just as sweet. Which makes it a shame that all the A Camp tour dates announced so far are in the States… Road Trip anyone?

For now, I guess we’ll all have to make do with listening to all the tracks on Colonia as many times as humanly possible. Yup. All of us. So get to work, friend!

Tags: A Camp, first spins, The Cardigans