‘Honest’ isn’t a word you’d usually associate with Alex Cameron’s work. ‘Clever’? Absolutely. ‘Brilliant’ even.
But his music has always been sheathed by layers of caricature and satire – Alex Cameron himself is a persona, and that’s his shtick. Miami Memory, however, feels like the realest glimpse we’ve gotten of the singer yet.
Full of sly asides and melodies as slick as his hair, Miami Memory doesn’t sound all too different from Cameron’s previous albums – until you dig beneath the surface, that is. You need only glance the tracklist to see the shift in attitude: ‘Gaslight’, ‘Bad For The Boys’ and ‘PC With Me’ offer a swift turn from the narrations of macho blokes and sexual deviants frequently employed by Cameron in the past.
Where Cameron previously embodied the perspectives of his toxic characters, Miami Memory points the finger.
“It ain’t your goddamn business/If she does it for pay/Far from born again/She’s doing porn again” he sings against a duet of smooth sax and sultry synth on ‘Far From Born Again’, championing self-sufficient women and sex workers. The delivery of his message may have changed, but the sharpness of his wit hasn’t dulled a bit.
Fragments of Cameron’s personal life are sprinkled throughout Miami Memory, too. A gift to his partner and muse Jemima Kirke, the album explores the most intimate and candid moments of love and relationships – from ass-eating to being a stepdad.
Culminating with a spoken word verse in closer ‘Too Far’, singing Kirke’s praises as a mother, artist, actor and “a motherfucking powerhouse”, Miami Memory is the most unconventional extended love ballad you’re likely to hear. But what’s more Alex Cameron than that?
