Please give a warm welcome to Cameron Winter

Something is happening. An exciting new musical talent who very few are aware of yet has arrived. Or is arriving. Or is in the process of becoming. Like the rest of us, only moreso.

His name is Cameron Winter. He is 23 years old. He is from New York. He has recorded two albums as the lead singer and co-songwriter with the rock band Geese, Projector (2021) when he was 18 and 3D Country (2023) when he was 20. They have toured with King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. Winter lives with his parents.

But it is his solo album from December of last year, Heavy Metal, which I didn’t hear until last week (and only thanks to my sons, who discovered him independent of each other and were thoughtful enough to share their passion with me), that earned him his first famous, bonafide genius rock star fan, none other than Nick Cave. Cave singles out “Drinking Age” for its lyric Everything is lying/Today, I met who I'm gonna be from now on/And he's a piece of shit, yeah. I don’t even like that song much compared to the first rest of the album. But if Nick Cave loves it, I’m willing to admit I might be missing something.

The second Geese album made my main list in 2023, but I didn’t know their singer was named Cameron Winter. Check out the title track, “3D Country” and “Crusades.” Great stuff. Or how about the killer ear worm “Killing My Borrowed Time” from their 4D Country EP? Undeniable.

But it’s the first three songs on the solo album, “The Rolling Stones,” “Nausicaä (Love Will Be Revealed),” and “Love Takes Miles” that are clearly the work of a brilliant new songwriting force to be reckoned with. It’s almost impossible not to hear, and more importantly, feel it. The last song, “Can’t Keep Anything” destroys me as well.

Mid-album highlights include “Cancer in My Skull” and the gospel inflected “Try as I May.” And “Nina + Field of Cops,” perhaps the oddest track on the album, which reminds me of 80s Tom Waits in how it sounds like it’s falling apart and broken, but is also beautiful at the same time.

Honestly, there’s nothing on this record that isn’t compelling to one degree or another. And the solo single “Vines,” also from last year, is special too.

Other than 25 year old MJ Lenderman, whose album Manning Fireworks was my third favorite album of last year, Winter is the first Gen Z songwriter to blow my mind. Heavy Metal was clearly one of the best albums from last year, but I just didn’t know about it until now. I can’t fucking wait to hear the next Geese album or Winter solo album or both.

In “Cancer of the Skull,” Winter sings I am that $0 man, and then there’s an entire song the gorgeous “$0”, where other people make him feel like the $0 man once again. Fuck these people. I get the feeling from this and the fact that he lives with his parents (though he is only 22, so no shame in that) that he is broke.

Not for long, brother. Not if you keep following your muse.

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