VICTORYLAND - My Heart Is A Room With No Cameras In It

This record by Julian McCamman, the name behind the Victoryland project, seems almost torn in two by centrifugal and centripetal forces. Part collective effort, part solo statement; idiosyncratic and abrasive, yet also romantic and spiritual.

"Fits" certainly draws together all these different souls, with its piling-up of instruments and counter-vocals that could be the result of band members progressively joining in as much as an orchestrated use of a loop machine, where obsession and despair are mirrored in flashes of light and hope ("No Cameras").

The collaboration between the band's members feels almost improvised, as in the opening "Here I Stand", which recalls a bit of Dodos' "Visiter" and its playful spirit, its frantic percussion. There's certainly an expressive force to the songs on "My Heart Is A Room...", not far removed from that of a Spencer Krug, but without declamatory flourishes or baroque surges, or from the acid bite of Modest Mouse ("Keep Me Around", "I Got God").

In fact, the album also opens up unexpectedly to glimpses of defenseless tenderness ("I'll Show You Mine", "Blur") that reveal the full extent of McCamman's eclectic songwriting.

Some will already be invoking the 2000s revival for this record, and indeed certain stylistic choices do feel reminiscent of that era (the idiosyncratic, vaguely revivalist swing of "You Were Solved"), but the project's artistic imprint remains its most distinctive trait, especially in the vocal performances.

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23/03/2026