Aching chamber-pop chock-full of keys, strings, and ancient melodies. File under: indie-pop-alt-country-rock-etc.

13 MP3 Songs
POP: Beatles-pop, ROCK: 60's Rock



Details:
On the highly anticipated "Stories of The Knife and The Back", Chicago singer-songwriter Cameron McGill is what one might call a rocking paradox. The kind of person, someone less lonely would call insane. Having fronted Chicago's power pop trio Morris Minors for 3 years, McGill calmed down in favor of an aching chamber pop record. Once described as "the loudest and softest act you will ever see" McGill can scream like a whisper in his songs - literate and elegant tales about the jigsaw puzzles of ordinary life and everyday heartbreak.

Recorded at Raxtrax studios in Chicago in the later part of 2002 and early 2003, many of the albums themes come alive with the emotion in McGill's vocals. Namedly desperate attempts at confronting mortality, which is a common thread for this group of songs. As "Make-out Face" determines, "now you are in your own LA, you've taken your last red-eye medication, and you don't think I can hear what it is you say, but heaven has its own PA and I can still hear your voice..." The devastatingly honest lyrics travel with the instrumentation; where every word plays a role, where every instrument seems in its right place.

The beauty of "Stories..." lies in the fact that it juxtaposes the dark romance of string sections with melodies from a different era that gain such velocity they nearly run away. This is McGill's rewarding attempt at experimentation, making "Stories of The Knife and The Back," a road trip, mix-tape, bruised arms out the window on a summer day kind of album, even if in a depressed sort of way.

Starting out in the coffeehouse circuit and ending up on larger stages as of late, Cameron McGill has opened for renowned artists Damien Rice, Ian McCulloch, John Stirratt, and Ours, and played at both the SXSW and CMJ festivals this past year. Selling out many of his local shows, McGill and his (sometimes) live band have earned a fiercely loyal following. Live, McGill's shows either take on a lone gunman approach or employee the kitchen sink.

Focusing on strong lyrics like, "I quit losing years years ago, now I just run the ones that I have into the ground, hoping the one heartache I've found is my lost pleasure, buried like a treasure unfound till now," "Stories of the Knife and the Back" is an honest album laced together with exquisite storytelling. McGill plays the songs on "Stories..." as if he's worn them and lived in them forever. Cameron can be seen singin' for his supper somewhere in Chicago.

File under: indie-pop-alt-country-rock-etc.

-erin smolinski