Mississauga Goddam

1	Doot Doot Plot 2:47
2	Builds the Bone 3:40
3	Fear Is On 2:41
4	That's When the Ceremony Starts 3:07
5	I Believe in the Good of Life 3:33
6	In the Union of Wine 4:43
7	Music Is My Boyfriend 3:28
8	Bboy 2:38
9	We Oh We 4:32
10	I Want Another Enema 3:55
11	Mississauga Goddam 5:44

Barnes & Noble

Orchestral pop took a fascinating detour when Toronto's Hidden Cameras released their 2003 U.S. debut, The Smell of Our Own, which joined effusive melodies and arrangements with overtly gay themes. Sidestepping the sexual ambiguity and repression common to the music of Belle & Sebastian and Morrissey, lead Cameraman Joel Gibb's lyrics absolutely obsess over gay sex, mixing religious imagery and bodily fluids with a frankness that harkens back to Madonna's most daring days. Gibb's troupe answer the thirst left by their debut with Mississauga Goddam, rife with buoyant, richly arranged tunes such as the jangling, organ-driven "I Believe in the Good Life," which finds Gibb reveling in lines like "I believe in the good of life as I kneel for a taste of man," and the strings-gilded "Music Is My Boyfriend," an homage to the sustaining power of music. Such tracks are countered by more raw expressions, such as the spare "Builds the Bone," sketching what sounds like a young gay man's early sexual experiences, simultaneously exciting and frightening. But even as Gibb dwells on familiar themes, he also broadens his view on songs such as "I Want Another Enema," which tackles both the pleasures of gay sex and the fear of exposing oneself to a lover, of being truly laid bare. And while the title cut isn't quite as pointed as the Nina Simone tune Gibb is riffing on, it does paint an effective portrait of a stifling suburban town. Like the Polyphonic Spree, Gibb & Co. conjure a free-spirited revival ambiance with their cute choruses and cute costumes, but the Hidden Cameras' weightier message make them stand out from the chamber-pop crowd. Lydia Vanderloo

All Music Guide

Toronto's Hidden Cameras do their best to avoid being pigeonholed as "that band that sings about urine" by writing more songs about urine on their infectious third release, Mississauga, Goddam. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Joel Gibb's clever observation on life, love, and gay culture are just as naughty and scene-stealing as they were on 2003's Smell of Our Own, but there's a newfound sense of poignancy that overrides much of Mississauga's patchwork nihilism. Fans of the chamber pop collective's Phil Spector wall of sex will be happy to know that all of the group's signature strings, glockenspiels, and harp swells remain, though this time around they're as clear as day, resulting in a vast improvement over Smell's often murky go-go dancer atmospherics. The first half of Mississauga is peerless. Opening with the brain-sticking "Doot Doot Ploot," it pays homage to everything from '70s soft rock ("Builds the Bone") to Belle & Sebastian-style U.K. faux-Motown ("Fear Is On") before descending into a whirlpool of doubt that finds the band second-guessing their own success. Live favorite "Bboy," a sexually charged barnburner if there ever was one, suffers from the brittle orchestral production that so successfully complements outstanding tracks like "I Believe in the Good of Life" and "That's Where the Ceremony Starts," and the sophomoric "I Want Another Enema" makes "Golden Showers" sound like Shakespeare -- even the winsome title track, which is lovely on its own, gets dragged under by heartless trio of tracks before it. Those criticisms aside, Mississauga, Goddam is impossible to ignore, both melodically and thematically. It's genuinely fun, endlessly danceable, and custom-made for cavorting and convertible driving, and hearing Gibb -- who sounds like a hydra topped with the heads of Morrissey, Jake Shears, and John Denver -- sing a line like "So he seduced me in my dream/I kissed his ugly gangly greens/he swallowed my pee" is really no different than AC/DC's Brian Johnson croaking "She was a fast machine/she kept her motor clean/she was the best damn woman that I ever seen." All night long, indeed. Reverend Lee Power