Camille: La Fille Du Cirque: Live At The Famous Spiegeltent Melbourne DVD

The DVD of Camille's La Fille Du Cirque: Live At The Famous Spiegeltent Melbourne is even more entertaining than the album of the same performance and leaves no question that Camille is indeed an electrifying live performer.



After a dramatic noirish opening sequence showing off the venue, Camille takes the stage in a black velvet trench coat and matching vintage half-veiled hat. Her performance of "God Is In The House" is as striking visually as it was on the CD. Camille stands and flips open the trench to reveal a fire red satin corset as she and her band rip into "Devil's Workshop". Her purrs and roars before "A Good Man" are even more amusing with the cute scenes of her interaction with the audience.

She lets her hair down for her hushed, mesmeric rendition of "Amsterdam", dons a red dress to dance with audience members during "In These Shoes", then temporarily covers back up with the trench coat for "Mercy Seat". The rest of the set plays out much like the album, with the spine-tingling a cappella "Marieke" again stealing the show. Camille hops on a large red swing that hangs from the ceiling for the finale "Is That All There Is?".

The DVD also includes a brief interview with Camille.

Camille Official Site
Camille MySpace
Buy the DVD

Camille: A Little Yearning

Camille's studio album A Little Yearning is much gentler in tone than her amazingly fierce live set La Fille Du Cirque: Live At The Famous Spiegeltent Melbourne. This time the focus is squarely on Camille's melodic cabaret side, though she still covers Nick Cave and Tom Waits - as well as Sweet and Kurt Weill.



The album opens with the slow tango "A Little Yearning" and the pretty "Voir Un Ami Perurer" before launching into consecutive stand out tracks. The marvelous harpsichord rendering of Sweet's "Oxygen" precedes an arresting harp accented cover of Nick Cave's underwater murder ballad "Little Water Song".

The cover of Tom Waits' "Innocent When You Dream" is a duet with Jack L . I think I preferred Camille's dramatic a cappella performance of "Marieke" on La Fille Du Cirque: Live At The Famous Spiegeltent Melbourne, but the smoother piano version on A Little Yearning is quite lovely. "Whatever Lola Wants" is paired with Weill's "Pirate Jenny".

"The Masochism Tango" is exactly what it seems - the pleasures of whips and bruises set to tango music. The sweeter melancholy of "Lilac Wine" follows. "The Song Of Old Lovers" and "Amsterdam" - both of which were also featured on Camille's live disc - quietly close the album.

Camille - Little Water Song (mp3)
Camille - Voir Un Ami Pleurer (mp3)
Camille & Jack L - Innocent When You Dream (mp3)
Camille - The Song Of Old Lovers (mp3)
Camille - Whatever Lola Wants (mp3)

Camille Official Site
Camille on MySpace
Buy the CD

Camille: La Fille Du Cirque: Live At The Famous Spiegeltent Melbourne

If La Fille Du Cirque: Live At The Famous Spiegeltent Melbourne is any indication, Camille gives truly incredible and unique live performances. Her music is a staggering concoction of whooping burlesque jazz, surging heartfelt torch songs, and a darker, often menacing narrative style that does Tom Waits and Nick Cave - both of whom she covers - proud. The daughter of a French woman and an Irishman, Camille O'Sullivan was born in London and raised in Cork, Ireland. Camille has shared venues with Damien Rice, Shane McGowan, and Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls.



The intense opening rendition of "God Is In The House" - Nick Cave's caustic satire of dogmatic bigotry - is initially mollified with sweet vocals and piano, but Camille finally unleashes a throaty growl toward the end to match the vitriolic climax of the lyrics.

Then "The Devil's Workshop" boosts the mood with a blare of horns accompanying Camille's seductive purrs and wails. "A Good Man" continues the brassy cabaret tone, with Camille literally growling at the audience this time.

The album finds it softer side in the wistful partly French ballad "Song For Old Lovers", Cave's "Are You The One", and the Waits-toned "Amsterdam". The saucy take on Kirsty Maccoll's "In These Shoes" stirs things up again, before the somber tone of the opener is resurrected by Cave's "The Mercy Seat". The main set closes with a raspy rock cover of David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream".

The encore rounds out the album with Camille's enthralling a cappella performance of "Marieke", the livelier "Jacky", and the charmingly apathetic classic "Is That All There Is?"

Camille Official Site
Camille on MySpace
Buy the CD