Cameron Avery – Ripe Dreams, Pipe Dreams

Back story first: Cameron Avery is probably best known for his involvement with Tame Impala, who he’s played with since 2011, but he’s also a founding member of Pond and he’s been known to share the stage with The Horrors and The Last Shadow Puppets. Even knowing all of this, Ripe Dreams, Pipe Dreams may still surprise fans and newbies alike.

Recasting himself as a sort of Aussie Scott Walker, what you get here are 10 songs so muscular and cinematic they deserve films to be made about them. There are times – opener A Time A Place, or Disposable – in which you wonder if Avery has his tongue in his cheek a la Neil Hannon; but then there are also times when he exudes the kind of cool last seen loitering in the brim of Johnny Cash’s stetson (Watch Me Take It Away – which could be Gallon Drunk –  is a massive highlight).

Curiously what you have here is an album composed by someone with an obvious love of the big band sound, blatantly wearing its influences on its sleeve but heartfelt as all hell – the kind of thing as likely to appeal to fans of Camera Obscura as those who like Michael Bublé.

Listen to: Wasted on Fidelity, Disposable, Watch Me Take It Away