a folk-pop masterpiece on queer love, loss and friendship, set between the walls of a melbourne share house

Darcy Fox’s sophomore album, Cameron Street, is palpably vulnerable.

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Darcy Fox is no stranger to the Melbourne music scene, but her new record ‘Cameron Street’ is sure to cement her place as a global talent.

It’s a big-hearted record, powered by guitar and raw emotion. The lesbian singer-songwriter has long proved her ability make you tap your feet while she rips your heart out.

All nine songs were written in Fox’s now infamous share house on Cameron Street. A once unassuming plot in Melbourne’s inner suburbs. She spent the better part of her twenties there and it shows in her artful storytelling: there are tracks that vibrate with anxiety and others that ooze oxytocin. Oscillating between morose, disappointed and infatuated like only a twenty-something can.

While this is certainly not the first album to capture the soaring highs and confusing lows of your growing into your adulthood, Fox introduces a queer lens still seldom heard.

“I never had an album that met me exactly where I was. One where I didn’t have to mentally switch out pronouns, or that addressed the intensity of queer love and loss, or that spoke to how hard it is to ‘find yourself’ when you don’t find out you’re gay until your twenties. So I wrote one.”

***

Fox and her producer, Curtis Hatton, are dream collaborators on this record. Taking masterful influence from Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers and Maggie Rogers. Together, they made a soul-stirring, folk-pop bed for Fox’s signature storytelling.

Fox spends the first half this record rigorously recounting heart break. Turning it over in her hands and inspecting it from every angle - grief, acceptance, melancholy.

The opening track ‘Ashamed’ expertly sets the scene: Fox is pulling herself out of anguish, one haunting lyric at a time. “I won’t take apologies now that you’ve got the time / Why should I get closure when you never gave me mine?”

Fox quickly follows this up with ‘Your Best’, a comparatively shy confession. One that has struck a chord with her dedicated fan-base - it’s easily her most requested song when performing live. “I know that you cannot serve from an empty cup / And I hope you know I tried but mine was never full enough / For both of us”

Side-A ends with ‘Souvenir’, another stand out track that begins with a delicate portrait of yearning, before hurtling to a euphonious bridge: “Let you go / Don’t want to let you go” Fox chants, building a powerful wall of harmonies. She continues over this into a final chorus, as if fighting to be heard above her own inner monologue: “‘Cause I can’t hold you down / And I can’t hold you back / I’m a souvenir / That won’t fit in your backpack”

Much of the second half is laced with an optimism Fox fought for in the previous tracks. Alt-pop tune ‘Lonely’ kicks us off - it’s a musical cutting of ties that propels her out of purgatory and into a fresh start. “You said you didn’t want to leave me / And darling I believe you / But I can’t hold on”
As if Fox were giving us a knowing wink, ‘Somewhere’ follows immediately after. It’s a honey-coated dedication to her wife: a deeply genuine portrayal of queer happiness.

Fox ends the album with the title track, ‘Cameron Street’ - an ode to friendship, growing up and figuring it out. And even more so, to the four walls that held her through all the emotions of the previous tracks. It’s a foot-stomping triumph, the kind that gets your blood pumping as soon as you hear the opening beats. It’s the kind of closer that makes you want to start from the top, all over again.

But with the album finished, has Darcy Fox ‘figured it out’?

“I definitely haven’t, but I’m surrounded by people who are going to help me do it”

***

Fox’s dedicated fanbase pour over every lyric, taking her sucker punch hooks and giving them a new life through their own stories. Long before this record came out - in the peak of COVID lockdowns, as the Australian music industry ground to a halt - they came together and helped her crowdfund over $15,000 to create this very record.

“I’ll never get over it. I created my dream album and they all believed in me before they even heard it.”

track by track

Ashamed - ‘The grief’

Darcy is uncompromising on this powerful track as she explores the shame of being in an emotionally destructive relationship, which festered under the added pressure of being closeted. Propelled by dynamic guitars, she moves forcefully through the anger and strips away the shame. Her grief escalates in the bridge, culminating in a sucker-punch:

“I have never felt more worthless than I did in our last months.”

Your Best - ‘The acceptance’

Fox expertly details the bittersweet sting of seeing your ex thriving without you, even if you wish them well.
Like authentic heartbreak, she oscillates between sorrow and spite. Mourning what once was while feeling cheated for not getting to meet the better version of the one who wronged her.

“If you’re in love again / I hope you’re giving them / Everything I know that you can be / Because I know you didn’t give your best to me”

Irish Tattoo - ‘The long goodbye’

Track three sees Fox outline the particular pain of grieving someone who hasn’t left yet. Opening with a pleasant facade of new love, it soon reveals the secret anxiety harboured below the surface. A musical pep-talk, Fox pulls on pop influences to camouflage her doubts.

“Day to day we’ll take this / Part of me I hate this / ‘Cause I am falling hard when you’re so far away”

She’s in London Now - ‘The melancholy’

The first single from Fox’s sophomore album, ‘She’s in London Now’ encapsulates the helplessness of a long distance break up. A deceptively upbeat tune, it set the tone of what what was to come for her dedicated fanbase.

“I didn’t see her coming / But I surely felt her go / So I packed her stuff into a bag / That I can’t bear to throw”

Souvenir - ‘The clean break’

Sometimes amicable break ups cut the deepest. There’s no one to blame, no great wrongdoing to latch on to. This stomach sinking track ‘Souvenir’ sets a wistful tone from the first bars - Fox’s lyrics follow suit, ultimately building to a haunting bridge that will remain in your heard for weeks to come.

“I can’t hold you down / I can’t hold you back / I’m a souvenir / That won’t fit in your backpack”

Lonely - ‘The fresh start’

Written from the stage of break-up purgatory where you’re ready to move on, but haven’t quite closed the door, this track is a musical cutting of ties. Fox leaves the blinds open, giving us unfiltered access to her emotional tug-of-war.

“I’m meeting people / And I’m having fun / But there’s something missing / ‘Cause I can’t let go / Of the love you gave me / But I want to though”

Somewhere - ‘The one’

This track is for the new lovers who feel as if they’ve known each other for eons. It’s a sickly sweet tribute to Fox’s own wife - shimmering with the unbridled bliss of being seen. Fox reaches for her country roots on this one, but always with a folk twist.

“I said I knew you in another life / And you smiled”

Stone In My Shoe - ‘The wounds’

As a self-confessed “spicy pisces”, Fox feels things deeply. But you don’t have to be a water sign to relate to this deeply vulnerable track about the way your own feelings can debilitate you. The song reads like a journal, and at times it feels like you’re witnessing something a little too personal - none more so than the last few lines, which hang in the air like a secret you can’t take back.

“I wish I could be stronger / And not feel so afraid / Because this want to be wanted is leaving me haunted / And it’s going to scare you away”

Cameron Street - ‘The found family’

Fox captures the giddy elation of independence in the title track of her sophomore album, ‘Cameron Street’. This upbeat jaunt feels like stumbling through a sharehouse party and finding your best friend in the kitchen, ready to spill a secret. An ode to the friendships that built you, you’ll find yourself simultaneously tapping your feet and wiping nostalgia from your eyes.

“When I moved to the city I wasn’t the girl I am now / I was broken and blue but I healed and I grew in this house”

album credits

Produced by Curtis Hatton and Darcy Fox. Additional production by Sean Hutton.

Recorded at Studio Truth and Fight Night Studios.

Engineered by Curtis Hatton and Sean Hutton.

Mixed by Curtis Hatton. 

Mastered by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone.

All songs written by Darcy Fox, except “She’s in London Now”, which was co-written with Imogen Clark.

All songs performed by Darcy Fox and Curtis Hatton, with help from friends: Cory Jach on guitars, Marcus Ryan on drums and Imogen Clark on backing vocals.

Album photography by Lucinda Goodwin.

praise for darcy

“Equal parts Gretta Ray, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, Fox flexes her ability to make you tap your feet while she rips your heart out.” - BEAT Magazine

”Darcy Fox brings a beautiful and honest energy to her music, spitting some of the rawest verses we’ve heard in a long time.” - Bored City

“Fox’s grounded lyrics are rooted in lived experience and flooded with searing honesty and imagery: A dramatic, sweeping effort that takes the ears and mind by storm.” - Forte

"She grabbed our attention from the first listen.” - Lost in the Nordics

‘cameron street’ is out 22 september, 2023.

For publicity, bookings or enquiries: management@darcyfoxmusic.com

All promotional images courtesy of Lucinda Goodwin and Jayden Byrne.