I know effectively nothing about Campfires other than they're based in Chicago and it's one guy. That's really all you need to know other than the fact they have a vinyl EP available and an 8-song cassette, you can also listen to them on their myspace. To be honest does it matter too much? I doubt it, the real question is what in the heck do I make of their album?
Well to be frightfully frank and honest, it's short and simple but brilliant. You have fuzzed up guitar melodies, turned up drums and even more fuzzed up vocals. There's a gorgeous lo-fi rawness to it all. As an album it's simplicity itself, 8 two minute or so songs, just guitars, drums, bass and vocals. On top of it all the vocals have a great dreamy quality and it is all swirled up in a big mess o' noise.
It's not without its faults, as the guitar line can get a bit repetitive like on "Portsmouth Daydream Supper" but generally speaking the guitar playing is creative, has great tonality and is generally pretty great. Admittedly the use of playing things backwards gets a bit annoying but still these are all just minor grievances.
Campfires is fantastic on a first listen, you go, "Yea, I like this, it's got good riffs, strong drums, ya can dance to it. Ride me sideways I think we have a winner." Second listen is much the same, third listen the riffs will start to grate but you'll still like it. Listen to it more than three times in a row then you'll get a bit pissed off with it and want to throw it in the bin. This is what's happened to me, I've listened to it a bit much over a short period of time and I'm annoyed by it. If you don't do what I did then I swear this is an album I'd highly recommend getting. Despite me getting annoyed by the little things now, I'm still gonna keep it and in a week's time I'll listen again and think it's marvelous. Get this one, it's a cracker.
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