Up And Elated

Ginger Root “No Problems”

Cameron Lew is a gleeful maximalist, pulling from Japanese City Pop, 70s McCartney and Electric Light Orchestra, 80s Sophisti-pop, and 90s Shibuya-kei to build songs that are dense with musical detail but feel light and fizzy. It really makes you wonder what some of these 20th century forebears of his aesthetic could have also made their elaborate music in digital home studios. “No Problems” presents as bright and groovy, but Lew’s lyrics are neurotically fixated on someone else’s sunny facade, almost unwilling to believe that this other person is as untroubled and happy as they say they are. Do I need to spell out the irony here?

Buy it from Bandcamp.