“THE GAY POLYPHONIC SPREE!” scream the giddy majority of press mentions of Toronto’s ever more gushed-over Hidden Cameras. Hell, look, we just did it too. We couldn’t help ourselves. And as frustrating as it may be for superficial similarities to be blown up millstone-esque, y’know, you need a starting point you can understand. And glance at the actual facts – a numerically unspecific morphing band of up to 15 musicians, a swelling backing choir and an excitable gaggle of male go-go dancers going ga-ga in their y-fronts, on top of uplifting, soulful indie-folk symphonies? It’s the Poly Spree yeah, but over half a bottle of Ouzo in the afternoon sun. Only any direct musical similarities peter out almost immediately after opening track ‘Golden Streams’ has floated in on a cloud of multi-ethereal mingling strings, strumming and fallen angelic hum. But a shared symphonic spirit there is.
The Hidden Cameras’ euphoria though is that more refined, less generic, certainly more personal. It’s essentially the work of songwriter Joel Gibb, who himself chooses the tag “gay church folk-music” as another accurate enough illustration, adding that it’s “gay meaning happy”. As an afterward though that’s rather an ironic take, presumably. It should clearly take the more androgynous meaning. Joel’s upfront lyrical refection of his own homosexuality is inescapable, blunt and at times verging on vulgarity. Either it’s him versus the world and its oppressive bigoted family with stark crudity as his symbolic weapon or it accounts for a lack of poetic perspective. But when there are hints of both as well as poetry, it’ll take further works to figure that. Whether it’s brave or brash though there’s no disputing the belief spilling off his tongue like treacle, deliciously coating every last word.
There are strong scrapings of REM, the pre-arena folk spirituality of ‘Murmur’ or ‘Life’s Rich Pageant’ specifically, Belle and Sebastian’s just-above-a-trundle-with-their-head-out-the-window pace and Beach Boys vibrations. Not that this record relies on it’s influences, they’ll just help you work out where they’re operating from. First single ‘Ban Marriage’ is so ridiculously enthusiastic in it’s conviction you’ll be grabbing an acoustic guitar and taking a torch to the nearest registry office. ‘Smells Like Happiness’ with handclaps, twee piano and sweet harmonies, has such a desperately delivered vocal you can practically hear his tonsils grazing his throat. ‘Breathe On It’ is like some amalgamation of ‘Stars Of Track & Field’ and ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’. And fantastic for it. The only reason this falls short of 5 stars is that you feel their flower’s only just beginning to open.