Four albums in, and Australian showman Alex Cameron continues to display his knack for brilliant storytelling. On Oxy Music, he dives into topics which others avoid, and explores the depths of depravity that not many others are looking in.

‘Sara Jo’—first released as a single in November of last year—was a welcome remedy to the two year drought since 2019’s Miami Memory. The offer was textbook Cameron, introducing his latest character: someone completely disillusioned with their life.

"Who pulled the curtains? Who broke the screen?/Who told my brother that his kids are gonna die from this vaccine?" he croons in the song. "Who told my mother that she’s never gonna find no love, nobody?/Who told my father that he doesn’t have to pay for counselling?"

‘Best life’, a chiming piece of '80s-esque synthpop is written from the perspective of a man starved of meaningful purpose and in dire need of a reason to life, eventually turning to opioids.

Oxy Music is packed with stories of people who fall outside the system and exist in the grey areas of life, the name of the album itself a dark reference to Oxycodone—opioid medication used for treatment of moderate to severe pain. Musically, Cameron relies on his old favourites. The theatrical '80s aesthetic of Forced Witness and Miami Memory is maintained, though Oxy Music sees a slightly more heavy approach on synths, reminiscent of his debut Jumping The Shark.

 

A minor criticism of Miami Memory was the obnoxiously loud drum sequences in some of the mixes. The criticism seems to have been eluded or ignored by Cameron as the same issues arise on Oxy Music, namely on ‘Cancel Culture’. Similarly, ‘Hold The Line’ is clunky and the beat stutters throughout. Saxophonist and long-time right hand man Roy Molloy is dependent and continues to pair his instrumentation well with Cameron’s songwriting.

The title track closes the album, an unlikely collaboration with Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods. This is surely Cameron at his best, blending upbeat synth pop with staggeringly heart-rendering lyrics: "you only need one bullet in the gun, you only ever need one bullet my son".

Nothing has ever been off limits with Cameron, and the additions of opioid addiction, ketamine infusion therapy, vaccine denial and even ‘codeine ragu’, make Oxy Music a brilliant addition to Cameron’s catalogue, and arguably matches the fearlessness of 2017’s Forced Witness.