September 19, 2001
A Camp : A Camp
Nina Persson tries to convince us that she's more Dixie than pixie...
That's 'A Camp PRODUCED BY MARK LINKOUS OUT OFSPARKLEHORSE' by the way, in case you hadn't noticed from the fact that Mark's all over the video, plays on most of the tracks, gets pictured on the sleeve and, er, all the songs sound likeSparklehorse .
So, after stints as Impenetrable Ice Maiden, tatted-to-the-max suicidal rock vixen and the uncomfortable woman stood next to Tom Jones, Nina Persson's mission to stop people thinking of her as a cutesy Swedish pixie out of Cardigans brings us here: to her makeover as the nu queen of alt.country. I am not making this up.
The trouble is Nina Persson is as much a country singer as Germany are a football team. No matter how many fuzzy pedal steel guitars Linkous can make weep like recently sacked angels on 'Silent Night' or saws that Jonathan Donahue can make sound like Walt Disney's collection of scary owls on 'Algebra', the second our Nina opens her trap we?re back on that glacier hunting baby seals.
Which makes 'A Camp' a soulless and schizophrenic beast, never sure if it wants to be quirky folk pop ('I Can Buy You'), robo-Siouxie ('The Oddness Of The Lord'), trip-hop ('The Same Old Song') or - choke! - Tom Petty ('Rock'N'Roll Ghost'). Camp, then, as a row of one-legged cowboys.
Mark Beaumont
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