Welcome to Condale

Description

After a single, an EP, a couple of online tracks and a whole load of excitable buzz tipping them for the top, London duo Jeremy Warmsley and Elizabeth Sankey better known as Summer Camp are finally unveiling their deliciously idiosyncratic, gloriously kaleidoscopic vision of pop with their debut full length, quite appropriately titled Welcome To Condale, released on their own Apricot Recording Company imprint, in conjunction with Moshi Moshi and Pledgemusic.

Taking its cues from teen films from the 80s, Welcome To Condale unfolds, appropriately, in cinematic fashion, bringing to vivid life a cast of misfits and prom queens, loners and lovers all going through crises of the heart, evoking a whole universe of heartbreak and longing in miniature. Listeners may already be familiar with some tracks the sepia swoon of Ghost Train reappears for instance, as does the utterly beguiling live favourite Summer Camp but, as the upcoming single Better Off Without You proves, Summer Camp have much more up their sleeves than simply crafting a dreamy, hazy pop gem.

Working with Pulps Steve Mackey, Summer Camp have gone from dabbling in nostalgic golden tones to painting with a whole vibrant palette of colour. Theres the claustrophobic menace of I Want You, for instance, with its shuddering synths and dangerously obsessional lyrics (If I could Id squeeze your hand so tight that every knuckle would crack/ Id wrap my arms around you and snap every bone in your back), while, on the opposite end of the spectrum, Losing My Mind marries an infectious, whistle-worthy chorus with a tale of love gone sour, with Warmsley and Sankey singing well this house isnt big enough for the both of us/ if you want to leave, I suppose you must. Welcome to Condale meanwhile, with its protagonists grand dreams of small town escape, is simultaneously aching and romantic, its underlying sense of melancholia only spurred on by Warmsleys C86 indebted, elided guitar strokes.

But it is the majestic closing track 1988 that sums up Summer Camps unique sensibilities so perfectly. Playing out like the best end-of-the-movie soundtrack Molly Ringwald could have ever asked for, keyboards twinkle and shimmer as Sankey belts out the simple yet chest-swelling refrain hold on to me/ and Ill hold on to you, and their entire cast dance in unison at the high school prom as the credits come up. It is at once affecting and magical, nostalgic yet universal, and brings the album to a fitting close