by
Camp Cope
- Record Label: Run for Cover Records
- Release Date: Mar 2, 2018
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Mar 5, 2018Somehow these combined imperfections result in several absolutely perfect moments that will keep How To Socialise & Make Friends on rotation for a good while to come.
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Mar 19, 2018It’s Georgia Maq’s raw-edged vocals you’ll remember, and the consistency of the musical canvas opens space for her to work. Her lyrics articulate human entanglements with a lack of sentimentality that belies how much she cares, and like Hop Along’s Frances Quinlan, she has a gift for evoking shame hand-in-hand with fury.
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Mar 8, 2018You end up thinking, well, of course, a band this ruthlessly observant and unflinching is going to be mad a lot of the time, but how great that they bring the same intensity to love.
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Mar 5, 2018It is impassioned and political, but most of the album is more life-affirming than alienating. These are songs about solidarity and overcoming adversity, either through specifically female friendship or finding that strength introspectively.
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Mar 5, 2018To say that this album is an incredibly intimate listen would be an understatement, safely compared to Mount Eerie's A Crow Looked at Me. Filled with crippling self-realizations and epiphanies regarding grief and self-renewal, it is truly a special record, heavy and rewarding, like an extremely necessary midnight cry.
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Mar 2, 2018It’s impossible not to be drawn into the conversational style of the lyrics. McDonald’s singing, to quote Lester Bangs, is “a raw wail from the bottom of the guts”, a perfectly imperfect instrument for an unstable age. Bass player Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich and drummer Sarah Thompson provide a sturdy framework and, crucially, just enough colour to hold the songs aloft.
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Mar 2, 2018It’s emo at its finest, and the record ends as emotionally as it begins. By the final track, How to Socialise & Make Friends shows that Camp Cope are driven by the band unapologetically being themselves
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Mar 2, 2018McDonald's songwriting is melodic and bittersweet, more often than not tumbling into catharsis and wounded outrage midway through. There's an intense magnetism to her vocals as she wields her emotional sword, channeling vulnerability and danger into something unpredictable and uncomfortably human.
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Mar 2, 2018To write about topics this intimate is brave. For Camp Cope to do so with honesty and enchanting fury takes a lot of energy--and that is nothing short of valiant.
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Mar 7, 2018Camp Cope’s windswept punk feels both retro and right now, like Courtney Barnett covering Tigers Jaw covering Ani DiFranco. Their sound is jangly but unpolished, folky but not crunchy. Maq’s voice, decorated with Australian diphthongs, ably meanders from shouty to soft, conjuring an inexplicable mashup of Joe Strummer and Joni Mitchell
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Mar 19, 2018While How to Socialise isn’t the most musically adventurous album, its moments of humanity are what give the band its subtle edge.
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Mar 2, 2018The highs on How to Socialise are meteoric while the relative lows are kept afloat by its members' musical prowess and McDonald's ability to wring tension and drama from personal adversity. Far from the stand-offish listen its sarcastic title suggests, expect the album to win Camp Cope plenty of new friends and admirers alike.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 6 out of 7
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Mixed: 1 out of 7
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Negative: 0 out of 7
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Apr 5, 2018
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May 31, 2018