Miami Memory is the third album by Australian singer-songwriter Alex Cameron, who was thrust into the media spotlight after his collaboration with Kirin J. Callinan on the track Big Enough (2017). The Sydney dandy is one half of the electro duo Seekae and has always been fond of concept-albums and antipathetic personalities. He already tackled the issue of toxic masculinity from the point of view of a number of personas in Forced Witness (2017), each of them machist and misogynist in their own way. For these ten new tracks the theme is ‘80s style instruments (synthesizers, saxophones), a fitting backdrop to once again spark up the debate over these male mentalities that haven’t changed since the 20th century. The first example is Far From Born Again, which is about the independent sex work industry and is written as a response to the frustration and anger that workers often feel against those who oppose it; “They’re angry little dogs / But she don’t care what they say / Same men tell her to stop / Are the same fuckers that pay”. In other tracks such as the Thin Lizzy-esque Bad for the Boys, Cameron takes on a tone of irony, “Now you’re living little lives without women / and you’re blaming them for all the change / You thought the boys were supposed to stay the same / but no one cares about your good old days”. The tone may be harsh but the music itself is still catchy, due in part to the great production skills of Jonathan Rado of Foxygen. The sheer expertise he brings to Miami Memory is truly the icing on the cake. © Alexis Renaudat/Qobuz