- Melbourne three-piece Camp Cope have gained a global reputation not just for their impassioned indie rock but their championing of indigenous and women’s causes. From their anti-sexual assault shirts donned by not only them but other likeminded music folk, to the candid yet compassionate sting of their lyrics, Camp Cope have become a source of empowerment for legions of fans.
Yet when one is left with the nine songs on their new album, the only thing that can truly resonate is the sound and themes of the music. Luckily, Camp Cope have the tunes to back up their proud and righteous activism.
New album How To Socialise And Make Friends follows up their self-titled 2016 debut. Despite being recorded in just two days, it boasts a no-frills yet punchy sound providing equal space for singer/guitarist Georgia Maq’s soaring, Australian-accented vocals and the live-in-the-studio feel of the music, from Georgia’s jangly guitar, Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich’s melodic bass lines and Sarah Thompson’s shuffling, punchy drumming.
There are some deeply personal, even disturbing themes to be found within this new record. The Face Of God is a raw, haunted portrayal of sexual assault, but is no hopeless dirge either, Georgia’s passionate delivery giving the song genuine emotional power.
“Get a female opener, that’ll fill the quota”, Georgia spits in first single The Opener as churning indie rock ignites this slow burner which addresses the band’s concerns with the frequent absence of female artists in the minds of band bookers.
More upbeat is the title track, as Georgia celebrates independence, singing “I can see myself living without you and being fine for the rest of my life”. This song is a charming and comparatively breezy number, but Georgia’s one-hundred-percent vocal commitment means the intensity is still there in spades.
Each and every song has a hook or a lyric that the listener can grab on to. The Omen is a beautifully melancholic ballad while the self-assuring tone of Animal & Real tempers the more prickly emotions that unblinkingly pepper the record.
In fact, that is arguably the album’s main strength: these songs encompass the lived experience, from despair to euphoria but even in its bleakest moments there is a defiance and passion that evokes bouncing back from life’s most gruelling challenges, scarred but stronger.
As Georgia, backed only by her acoustic guitar, sings of the loss of her father in closing track I’ve Got You, it is the empathy and love which is most vivid. That could be said of the album as a whole. This record is REAL.
-Matt Thrower.