Search - Camber :: Wake Up & Be Happy

Don?t let this album be your introduction to Camber

Ben Sullivan | Columbus, OH USA | 08/12/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Wake Up and Be Happy exhibits an accomplished indie band making a drastic departure from their previous work. Anyway, I've Been There delivered on the promise of Beautiful Charade, maintaining their skillful lo-fi sound and fleshing out their material with tighter arrangements and inspired wordplay from frontman Barry Lott. Camber's third release looks to cannibalize this maturation with a set of uninspired, surprisingly conventional rock tunes that will leave you scratching your head and looking for a new disc. The first (glaring) misstep the band has taken is the addition of meandering, noodly guitar solos that fail to serve their songs in any way. Gone is their trademark tight production and concise writing; you will not appreciate Camber's new penchant for guitar solos or their fawning fascination with studio effects. "Expat" exemplies this approach, bludgeoning you over the head with an impotent drop D riff and a feeble, wanky solo. Did Camber `wake up' and read the headlines that emo was no longer an attractive movement in which to pitch camp? "Devil You Know" should function as an indication of things to come... Lott drops his reedy, Enigk-esque delivery in favor of a faux-macho bark. Thankfully, he returns to his distinctive crooning by track 2; but you'll still be wondering if songs like the title track weren't reject fodder off a Stone Temple Pilots record. Tracks that show promise (like "Darling Daughter") develop into boring dirges with lyrics like "It's tragic to discover/ that I don't really matter to my mother." Wake Up is an indie album in staid alt-rock vestments. Fronting sounds from Hum to the less inspired half of the Deep Elm roster, Camber ends up an impish caricature of themselves. Lott's lyrics feel rehashed, and the album lacks confidence and resolute instrumentation - a problem new drummer Roger Coletti shares with the 11 tracks. To be somewhat oafish, Camber seems to voice their predicament succinctly in "Short Sleeve": "No disrespect, but you've taken on a smell/ And it won't sell." A fantastic disappointment from a really good band that isn't moving in profitable directions."