From the grittiest blues riffs to warm and sensitive melodies, carefully orchestrated atmospheres to direct and punchy arrangements that leave you not knowing what hit you, Camille Miller’s Shadows and Lines is expansive, gorgeous, and just keeps on giving.
Camille Miller is a singer and songwriter based in the Portuguese capital Lisbon, originally from Canada and born on a military base in Germany. Globe-trotting artist Camille’s music is uniformly tangential to pop on her latest album Shadows and Lines. Whether it’s a bluesy beast like the starter ‘Leave Is Alone’, a dark ballad such as ‘Summer Dress’, a sweet country pop number like ‘To Be Free’, or the explosive rock tendencies of the album’s title track, there is a running stream of pop appeal to all the songs on the album, mainly driven by Miller’s capable and varied vocal deliveries, always engaging.
Shadows and Lines is a rich collection of new and older songs whose demos were recorded in Camille’s house in Lisbon. She enlisted the help of producer, drummer, and fellow Canadian artist Chris Aiken to help her on production. Aiken in turn sought Tomek Pfeiffer, Szymon Orlowski, and Oksana Predko to play on the album, all based in Poland, and the ensemble was completed by the synths and keyboards of Canadian artist Mary Ancheta. The results are gripping, genre hopping songs that are catchy, pretty, varied, and endlessly entertaining.
Among the album’s many highlights is the starter ‘Leave It Alone’. Smokehouse blues with charismatic riffs and sullen, seductive vocals that introduce the terrific vocal talent of Camille Miller in a stellar display of range and control. ‘Leave It Alone’, with its colorful female choir yells, driving groove, and overdriven riffs also introduce the first of the album’s many fantastic mixes. A superbly balanced and powerful starter. The pop rock of the melodic ‘Nest’ does a great job in establishing Miller as an artist with a varied range. Miles apart from the edgy and flamboyant blues of the starter, this jangly and subdued sophomore stunner is sizzling for completely different reasons. ‘Summer Dress’, a song about Miller’s personal losses, might be the album’s defining moment. A caramel vocal delivery that’s considerably challenging is accompanied by a venomous, descending riff and a musical texture that are so dark they swallow the light right out of the room. An instantly memorable song.
The album balances itself right away, swaying the darkness of ‘Summer Dress’ in the opposite direction immediately with ‘To Be Free’. A restrained, slow-tempo stunner that’s driven by a bustling guitar arrangement and one more fantastic vocal delivery by Miller. ‘Shadows and Lines’ features one more set of intoxicating riffs, this time less smoky and more downright rocking. With a confident pace and a steady, heavy-handed beat, the album’s title track is exceptionally charismatic, and the song’s composition is rich with colorful chord sequences, blazing guitar solos. ‘Shadows and Lines’ is far more intricate than your average run of the mill pop rock. A song so nuanced it features a composition that would be right at home on Muse’s Absolution. Well balanced pop rock tendencies show up once again on the balanced and chic ‘Smoking Cigarettes’. One of the album’s latter half defining songs. Upbeat, bustling with terrific grooves, atmospheric guitar solos, and a composition that leaves a lot of space for Miller’s rich vocals and thoughtful lyrics, ‘Smoking Cigarettes’ is a delightfully well-put together piece of songwriting that’s very enjoyable.
Camille Miller’s latest album ‘Shadows and Lines’ is a continuation of this veteran’s 2+ decade long career of engaging and continually evolving music. A talented songwriter and a fantastic singer, Camille Miller’s music is breezy and easy to love. Just take the endlessly cool solo on the album closer ‘Honesty’ as an example of an album very little filler that it still has some tricks to pull off in its very last legs.
