Summer Camp – Welcome To Condale
Moshi Moshi
For those who never grew out of slumber parties and Brat Pack flicks, this debut from London duo Summer Camp is a saccharine dream wrapped in blushing pink PJs. But the more cynically minded may want to approach this record with caution. To expand, Condale is a fictional town in LA, where teen dreams prevail and love conquers all. Welcome To Condale is a tour of forlorn heartbreak, with a hefty shovel of youthful candour. Part C86, part Sonny and Cher, part John Hughes, opener ‘Better Off Without You’ was made to hum while gazing into a locker-door mirror: “Stop calling me,” Elizabeth Sankey sings, with a flick of her ponytail.
In ‘Brian Krakow’, her male suitor makes his debut, with Jeremy Warmsley breathing over some synths that border on parody: “I don’t wanna be your friend / I don’t wanna meet your folks”, as just exactly what it is he does want becomes abundantly clear. The ’80s claps and echoing keys are merely a platform for Sankey and Warmsley to play suggestively on the age-old parable of boy meets girl. ‘Nobody Knows You’ playfully accents the darker aspects of the band’s sound, while on ‘Welcome To Condale’ Sankey reaches her zenith, empowered, warbling “I’m coming home” and washing her hands of the preceding turmoil.
As a package, the assistance of Pulp’s Steve Mackey twiddling on the production knobs makes this a bigger beast than was perhaps suggested by their shonking earlier numbers. The synths are sharp, the rhythms driving and the vocals of the distinctly cherubic persuasion. Quite why a band comprised solely of Englanders have appointed themselves soothsayers of the American teen dream is a puzzle, but whatever: Welcome To Condale works. For all its sly poking fun at the listener, this might just be a record best enjoyed at face value. Natalie Hardwick
