After five years, Cam is back with her sophomore album ‘The Otherside’, released Friday. Cam had released two singles from this album so far, ‘Diane’ from 2017 and ‘Classic’ in July of this year. She also released ‘Redwood Tree’ and ‘Till There’s Nothing Left’ as promotional songs. Overall, this was a solid effort, but I probably wouldn’t put it on my list of best albums of the year.
Aside from ‘Diane’, which is probably my favorite song in this collection, ‘Forgetting You’ is probably the song that I’d go back and listen to multiple times. The vocals are stellar, the production is hauntingly beautiful, and the story makes me feel something. We’ve all heard the tale of trying to get over an ex countless times in songs, but the imagery of her sitting alone in a hotel room and the ghost of an ex is sleeping next to her is so chilling and heartbreaking at the same time. I had the pleasure of watching Cam’s livestream at the Ryman Auditorium in August, and this is the only song from this album that’s just as good on the record as it is live.
There was nothing particularly bad about this album, but if ‘Girl Like Me’ was left off it, I don’t think very many would miss it. The message she was trying to convey wasn’t entirely clear in the lyrics. I might have needed multiple listens to try and understand it, but the production and vocals didn’t compel me to do so. ‘Redwood Tree’ is fine, but it’s not a very dynamic song and pretty much stays on one level the whole time. We’ve heard the “return to your hometown when you’re older and not realizing what you had” story on numerous occasions, and this isn’t in the upper tier of those songs.
So far, ‘Burning House’ has been Cam’s only certified hit. After listening to this album, I think ‘Forgetting You’ would be the only song that could even come close to matching that success. Again, this is not a bad album, it’s just not a particularly great one. If you want to judge for yourself though, click here.
