The Hidden Cameras' 2003 debut album The Smell Of Our Own became an underground hit thanks to the Ontario band's winning take on Belle And Sebastian/Magnetic Fields-style indie-pop, which extended those two acts' frank gay sexuality into the realm of explicit smut. Still, some complained that Joel Gibb's potty-mouth bandleader shtick seemed too calculated, and wondered if, without the songs about golden showers and enemas, The Hidden Cameras would get as much attention as other twee alterna-bands. That's a fair question, but a moot one. The Hidden Cameras' personality is bound up in camp and provocation, and the music it plays draws from a well-established "raging milquetoast" tradition. The real concern should revolve around whether Gibb's lyrics keep people from noticing how pretty and tuneful his songs are.
