Cameron Pierce - Polychrome

Hear The Track Here

Another long term favourite in the Gilmore household is Canadian Indie pop rocker Cameron Pierce. This is a Soundclick artist I seem to have forever, my life being peppered with Latmat (his first bandname) and Cameron Pierce tracks. It helps that he works in my most favoured of musical genres; pop rock with the emphasis on a good (if not great) song. It has to be said that I am a sucker for a good songwriter and Cameron has proved time and again that it is one of his main strengths. He's snagged quite a few Must Haves from me over the years, but his work tends to vary from track to track, sometimes it takes a track a while to work its way into my brain. He's also one of those musicians who puts all his energies into making music, as opposed to the usual bigging yourself up on forums that passes for promotion in some places, and that - I feel - means that he doesn't get across to as many people as I think he deserves. Certainly he makes the kind of music that pretty much appeals to most human beings on Earth.

Probably a couple of aliens too, come to that.

One of the more useful aspects of being a regular-as-clockwork reviewer is watching the development of musicians like Cameron, who first appeared as a pretty decent singer/songwriter with a nice line in pop. Since then, he has expanded into two major areas that are absolutely vital to longevity in this game: production and performance. One of his first comments was that he didn't think that he was that good a singer and that isn't something he can say these days, at least not believably. Polychrome features the man on all vocals (and there are a few parts going on in here) and the acapella section will show us dedicated fans that the man is right on top of his game, the vocals are bloody stunning.

Time after time in reviews I have mentioned Cameron's pace of learning and nowhere is this more in evidence on Polychrome than on the spotless production and the complexity (but still familiar) of the arrangement. For sure the vocal arrangement should be singled out for special praise but without the solidity and mass of the backing track wouldn't carry the same impact. It should be apparent to all and sundry that I have enormous bias towards this musician, but believe me he comes by it honestly. The one thing you can ensure with ANY Cameron Pierce track is that it will sound professional, listenable and yes, even likable - even if the whole pop rock thing turns you cold. Polychrome is, in my very humble opinion, one of the commercial tracks Cameron has ever come up with and shows that Bryan Adams doesn't have the market covered with this kind of material AND he's a fellow Canadian.

Highly Recommended pop rock and a MUST HAVE for fans.