Remember at school when everyone would be like Slow Club or Summer Camp, it got pretty fierce just like the rivalry between say The Beatles v The Stones, Duran Duran v Spandau Ballet, Take That V East 17 before them. There is only room for one uber-hip indie duo on the school lunch box. Will Summer Camp’s latest offering Bad Love be enough to tip the balance?
The London duo made up of Elizabeth Sankey and husband Jeremy Warmsley have again invited us away on vacation to enjoy yet more breezy, indie-pop with a little slice of 80’s nostalgia. Summer Camp have a canny knack of tricking their listeners into believing that they are a much better band than they actually are. Their cool, sweet sound always sounds like it should be the perfect accompaniment for any hipster bbq. Only problem with this album and their previous outings, hidden beneath the layers of bubbly synths and surf guitars and sweet vocals are a collection of pretty sub-par songs.
Here we are offered 11 songs about the ins and outs of love, some good some bad like on ‘Angela‘, “So happy for you that you’re so sad” Elizabeth Sankey repeatedly sings. Not a girl to be messed with. Warmsley proves he is a lot less bitter when he takes over the vocal duties. He coos”I still love you, I still dream of you“on the Dinosaur Jr meets Girls Aloud song ‘You’re Gone‘, what a sweetheart, hey ladies! Though the best tunes on Bad Love are when they are at their most bitter ‘If You Hate Me‘ has a beautiful M83 like sparkle throughout and the album title-track could just be the duo’s finest single to date.
Their music has always been said to be perfect for an 80’s Brat Pack movie, which is a very good shout. They even sound-tracked a high school movie last year with Beyond Clueless. Bad Love would have worked so much better if on every play a hologram of a drunken dance sequence with Demi Moore, Rob Lowe and Emilio Estevez popped up. It looks like The Slow Club will still remain on my lunchbox.
