Personnel: Joel Gibb (guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, electric 12-string guitar, nylon-string guitar, wah-wah guitar, kazoo, piano, organ, synthesizer, keyboard bass, vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel, drums, drum machine, cymbals, steel drum, tambourine); Kristen Moss (harp); Owen Pallett (violin, piano, celesta); Nana Jokura (violin); Luief Mosbaugh (viola); Amy Laing, Don Kerr, Mike Olsen (cello); Ohad Benchetrit (flute); Phil Seguin (trumpet); Jennifer Scolfield (French horn); Scott Good (trombone); Matias Rozenberg (keyboard bass, drums, spoons, percussion); Maggie MacDonald (vibraphone, glockenspiel); Michael Gambacurta (marimba); Paul Mathew (double bass); Lex Vaughn (drums, maracas, timpani).

Recording information: Rogue Studio, Toronto, Canada (12/09/2003); Trinity St. Paul's Church, Toronto, Canada (12/09/2003).

Photographers: Joel Gibb; Guntar Kravis.

Toronto's Hidden Cameras do their best to avoid being pigeonholed as "that band that sings about urine" by writing more songs about urine on their infectious third release, Mississauga, Goddam. Singer/songwriter/guitarist Joel Gibb's clever observation on life, love, and gay culture are just as naughty and scene-stealing as they were on 2003's Smell of Our Own, but there's a newfound sense of poignancy that overrides much of Mississauga's patchwork nihilism. Fans of the chamber pop collective's Phil Spector wall of sex will be happy to know that all of the group's signature strings, glockenspiels, and harp swells remain, though this time around they're as clear as day, resulting in a vast improvement over Smell's often murky go-go dancer atmospherics. The first half of Mississauga is peerless. Opening with the brain-sticking "Doot Doot Ploot," it pays homage to everything from '70s soft rock ("Builds the Bone") to Belle & Sebastian-style U.K. faux-Motown ("Fear Is On") before descending into a whirlpool of doubt that finds the band second-guessing their own success. Live favorite "Bboy," a sexually charged barnburner if there ever was one, suffers from the brittle orchestral production that so successfully complements outstanding tracks like "I Believe in the Good of Life" and "That's Where the Ceremony Starts," and the sophomoric "I Want Another Enema" makes "Golden Showers" sound like Shakespeare -- even the winsome title track, which is lovely on its own, gets dragged under by heartless trio of tracks before it. Those criticisms aside, Mississauga, Goddam is impossible to ignore, both melodically and thematically. It's genuinely fun, endlessly danceable, and custom-made for cavorting and convertible driving, and hearing Gibb -- who sounds like a hydra topped with the heads of Morrissey, Jake Shears, and John Denver -- sing a line like "So he seduced me in my dream/I kissed his ugly gangly greens/he swallowed my pee" is really no different than AC/DC's Brian Johnson croaking "She was a fast machine/she kept her motor clean/she was the best damn woman that I ever seen." All night long, indeed. ~ James Christopher Monger

For an album so wrought with homoerotic themes and graphic sexuality, Joel Gibb sings it surprisingly straight. Meaning, it's rather easy to get lost in the classic timbre and inflection of his voice, before realizing the lyrics are rather blue. (Listen to "That's When the Ceremony Starts" for irreverent lines that stand out like a hooker in church.)

As primary songwriter/musician/producer, Gibb takes the quirky subtlety of the Hidden Cameras' 2003 debut, THE SMELL OF OUR OWN, and turns it up a few dozen notches with more grandiose pop orchestration and further tales of sexual struggle and triumph. Rather brilliant arrangements sprawl out over the course of the album, as if Belle & Sebastian honed their melodic skills even further. The Hidden Cameras' AM-radio pop is thoroughly hooky, though it's the massive strings and melodies in songs like "Fear Is On," that elevate the band to its reputation as a "gay folk choir." Whatever the case, chances are music this randy is unlike anything in the church organist's repertoire.