Australian singer/songwriter Alex Cameron developed a persona of the same name over the course of several albums of dark, depraved narratives set to '80s-modeled synth pop. Listening closely to the raw tales Cameron spun in his songs was a wild ride. At times you could almost smell the cheap cologne as he sang about sleazy after-hours scenes, Internet romance, and the general bleakness and failures of his self-named character. With third album Miami Memory, Cameron doesn't dial back the depraved nature of his lyrics, but he pushes them to new places as they evolve to explore divorce, sex workers, parenthood, and other surprisingly mature themes. Foxygen's Jonathan Rado returns as producer, fresh off his own band's Springsteen/Eddie Money-modeled album Seeing Other People with a wealth of 1986 FM rock magic to sprinkle on the album. Almost every song is comprised of glassy synths, drums treated with gated reverb, and other trappings of '80s radio rock. While lyrically Cameron veers towards more sexually explicit imagery and character sketches of over-the-top disgusting humanity, Miami Memory is as close to his softer side as listeners are likely to get. The album starts in new territory, looking at parenthood on the nearly anthemic "Stepdad." The title track gets into sexual scenes too blunt to repeat while a distorted percussion loop and light, melodic piano lines suggest inoffensive, disposable pop. "Far from Born Again" is a carefree pop romp, upbeat and coy. Lyrically it looks at the struggles of a no-nonsense female protagonist, landing on the refrain "Far from born again/she's doing porn again." There's an amount of self-awareness in the songs, as headstrong characters sing about divorce, political correctness, and different shades of moral bankruptcy. The ugliness in Cameron's lyrics is similar to Andy Kaufman's grotesque characters or the closer parallel of his contemporary Father John Misty's dark reflections. It can be difficult to digest the combination of super-catchy pop hooks and shocking or gross lyrics on Miami Memory, but both are essential for the complex, cynical fiction Cameron has been building on all his albums. This one is the best produced, most catchy, and most vulgar of his catalog up until this point. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi

1		Stepdad
2		Miami Memory
3		Far From Born Again
4		Gaslight
5		Bad for the Boys
6		End Is Nigh
7		PC With Me
8		Divorce
9		Other Ladies
10		Too Far

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