Report to the Dance Floor : Camouflage's "Greyscale"

In the same club as Twin Shadow , but coming from a much more Euro vibe. Think Depeche Mode. Well I don't have to tell you to think anything because if that doesn't come to mind when you hear this I'm not sure what blog you are normally reading. This is however better than anything Depeche Mode has done since "Ultra". They are not totally stuck in the 80s as a song like "Laughing Proves". No wonder the title is "Greyscale" as that is how dark this album is.  So not goth, but it will appeal to goth's who have "Violator" in heavy rotation, as this is which era of Depeche Mode this projects draws inspiration from. They do tend to ride some of the grooves into the ground, but it allows the songs more of a drone.

"In the Cloud" drops things down into more of a ballad. This guy has a great voice that really carries the songs. It's mostly a very smooth baritone with room up his upper register to almost create a tenor quality. These guys have their roots in darkwave enough to have "Peter Heppner" from Wolfsheim guest on the song"Count on Me". This is yet another slower song, though it builds into the lightest shade of darkwave, that is more ebm than not. The appearance of Heppner's vocals does give another color to the song that it needs since , it might be more uptempo beat wise than the previous song the  emotional context is very similar. The groove does darken slightly on the title track that still carries a tenderness rather than the stark coldness of darkwave. I do not however think that what's going on really carries the song as an instrumental track.

The album begins to lean toward being ballad heavy, unless this is chill wave, which I do not think is the intent. This does give his melodies more room on "Still". The pace finally picks up on "Misery". His vocals drop down into a more hushed urgency. More ballads follow.  Some are more effective than others. It really begins to boil down to if there is a sense of movement under the melody. It starts to stray into more Savage Garden territory. But it comes down to more than pacing at times, however when they work at a more danceable tempo every thing clicks into place. The stripped down sound of piano and the singers voice compliment each other. This album is impeccable in terms of production and performance.
"End of Words" finds the music getting into one of its darkest corners the album has shown us yet.The singer's almost too perfect phrasing takes away some of the edge. Though it simmers around in circles from there.