Introducing Alex Cameron, man of character

Cameron hails from Sydney, but there’s a distinct sense of deliberate Americana in his voice, music, and subject matter. Substitute some of the album’s vintage-sounding synths for guitar and much of Jumping the Shark sounds like it could be by Kurt Vile or The War on Drugs.

Throughout the record, Cameron embodies a host of characters, all tied together by their less-than-ideal circumstances and told apart by their appraisal of that reality. Jumping the Shark isn’t a character study concept album like Andy Shauf’s The Party, but it is just as immersive in many ways.

On “Happy Ending”, Cameron shoots to make the best of things, picking up the pieces after washing out of the finance industry.

“I know I'm living with my folks now / But I can still get around / And I don't even have to pay rent / I'm on a fair enough pension / I'm still the king of this town”, sounding like someone trying not to chafe against their surroundings.

"The Comeback" feels like the bare bones storyboard of what could be a stadium-filling song by The Killers, but works just as well stripped down. “Real Bad Lookin’” is a phenomenal bit of storytelling, both funny and frighteningly delusional, with both sentiments punctuated by its bluesy 8-bit chords.

“I am the goddamn drunkest, ugliest girl at the bar / Yeah who the hell are you to tell me that I can't leave my kid in the car”, he asks, inviting confrontation and echoing a sentiment we’ve all probably heard at one seedy establishment or another.

The second half of the album is slower and less immediately enjoyable than the first, but it fits the overall theme both lyrically and sonically.

Jumping the Shark, with its clear central premise and limited musical palate, is inherently niche, but if you find yourself intrigued by his storytelling Cameron won’t need any gimmicks to keep you invested.