(photo: Myspace.com)
Calling the opening track “Ratify the New” is one way to signal that Origin:Orphan is not the same old Hidden Cameras. “Like the death of his muse/ratify the new,” proclaims Joel Gibb, and based on the elongated droning note that prefaces the song, Gibb and company are clearly finding inspiration in new places. “Forget what you know,” he instructs the listener, a fair warning to fans that what you’re about to experience is not what you may be expecting. It is a thunderous and intimidating song–two descriptors I don’t think I’ve ever used to describe The Hidden Cameras before. Where once this meek and mild-mannered orchestra pop band played with melodies and timpani, they now smolder and brood with seriousness. Is it a cliché to say that the band has matured when they most clearly have? This is the same Hidden Cameras that recorded a song about watersports (the bathroom variety) called “Golden Streams” is it not?
With just a cursory listen to a track like “In the NA” the answer to the above question is yes, they’re the same band, but even in that song’s up-tempo bounce beats a heart of darkness. “NA” could just about represent anything–positive or negative–a place holder for the emotions that would fit the situation best. So in a very surreptitious way, Gibb has let the veneer of jubilation pale and lose its luster without actually changing the basic structure of what made the Hidden Cameras so much fun before.
Which doesn’t mean that they’re not fun now, just fun in a different, more grown up way. Kind of like how playing hide-and-go-seek when you’re an adult, drunk and in the middle of the night, is a different kind of fun than when you were a kid playing in daylight around your neighbourhood. “Colour of a Man” reminds me a lot of “The Man That I Am With My Man” and is a perfect encapsulation of the band’s maturity. There’s an element of having been around the block a few too many times in Gibb’s vocals, a “once bitten, twice shy” reserve that hints that a certain naivete has been lost.
In the process of all this maturing and toughening up, the presentation of The ‘Cameras music, the arrangements and orchestration, have also undergone a transformation, where bigger isn’t necessarily better (musically speaking, of course). Restraint helps focus even the album’s weaker moments (“Do I Belong?”). Origin:Orphan is the most consistent sounding Hidden Cameras album in their canon, in part I think because of the way Gibb has focused the sound. “Walk On” with it’s string and horn opening assault might have turned ugly in other hands, but he uses it to create a tension and foreboding atmosphere that makes perfect sense in the context of the album. If, like me, you were a bit put off by that song when you first heard it outside of the LP, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how integral and perfectly it fits alongside its brethren.
And that is what ultimately sets Origin:Orphan apart from The Hidden Cameras back catalogue. From start to finish their is a progression and interconnectedness between the songs. It is an album that is whole, as opposed to a collection of like-minded songs. It looks good on them, too.
Now, who wants to get drunk and play hide-and-go-seek in the dark? Naked.
MP3: The Hidden Cameras “In The NA”
Myspace: The Hidden Cameras
Twitter: The Hidden Cameras
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