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**Camp Cope - How To Socialise & Make Friends ★★★★☆**

The indie rock world felt a collective gut punch in March 2024 when Camp Cope announced their breakup, citing the exhausting realities of touring and the need to pursue individual creative paths. For a band that had spent nearly a decade perfecting the art of raw emotional honesty wrapped in deceptively simple three-piece arrangements, it seemed almost poetic that they'd bow out just as they'd reached their creative peak. Their final album, "How To Socialise & Make Friends," now reads like both a culmination and a farewell letter—a bittersweet capstone to one of Australia's most vital indie rock exports.

But let's rewind to where this all began. Camp Cope emerged from Melbourne's DIY scene in 2015, born from the ashes of frontwoman Georgia Maq's previous projects and a shared frustration with the male-dominated landscape of Australian rock. Bassist Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich and drummer Sarah Thompson completed the trio, and together they channeled their collective experiences of sexism, heartbreak, and social anxiety into songs that felt like diary entries set to fuzz-laden guitars. Their early releases were scrappy affairs—all bleeding hearts and feedback—but they struck a nerve with listeners hungry for authenticity in an increasingly polished musical landscape.

The band's trajectory wasn't without turbulence. Their 2017 self-titled debut and 2018's "Running with the Hurricane" established them as formidable songwriters, but it was their outspoken criticism of festival lineups and industry gatekeeping that really put them on the map. They became reluctant poster children for gender equity in music, a role that brought both acclaim and backlash. By the time they entered the studio for "How To Socialise & Make Friends" in late 2022, Camp Cope had weathered years of public scrutiny, personal struggles, and the general apocalyptic malaise that defined the early 2020s.

Musically, the album finds the band pushing beyond their indie rock comfort zone while maintaining the emotional directness that made them essential listening. The production, handled by Anna Laverty, gives their typically sparse arrangements more breathing room, allowing Thompson's rhythmic complexity to shine through the mix. Hellmrich's bass lines have never sounded more melodic, weaving counterpoint melodies that elevate Maq's increasingly sophisticated songwriting. This isn't the same band that once recorded in bedrooms and basements—there's a confidence here that speaks to years of honing their craft.

The album's standout track, "Blue," exemplifies this evolution perfectly. What starts as a gentle acoustic meditation on depression gradually builds into a cathartic wall of sound, with Maq's vocals shifting from whispered confessions to full-throated declarations of survival. It's the kind of song that makes you want to call your therapist and start a band simultaneously. "Talking Heads" serves as the album's most direct social commentary, skewering the performative nature of online discourse with lyrics that cut like broken glass: "Everyone's got something to say / Until it's time to show up anyway."

The title track functions as both the album's emotional centerpiece and its most vulnerable moment. Over a deceptively simple chord progression, Maq chronicles the specific anxieties of adult friendship—the fear of being too much, the exhaustion of masking, the desperate need for connection despite social paralysis. It's a song that arrives at universal truths through deeply personal specifics, a trick Camp Cope mastered better than most of their contemporaries.

Other highlights include the driving "Aftermath," which channels the band's earlier punk energy into a meditation on trauma recovery, and "Weekend," a surprisingly hopeful anthem about finding joy in small moments. Even the album's quieter tracks, like the sparse "Interlude" and closing ballad "See You Around," feel essential rather than filler.

Looking back now, "How To Socialise & Make Friends" feels like the album Camp Cope were always meant to make—a perfect synthesis of their political consciousness, emotional intelligence, and musical growth. It's an album about learning to exist in a world that often feels hostile to sensitivity, about finding your people despite social anxiety, about growing up without losing the things that make you who you are.

The band's legacy extends far beyond their discography. They opened doors for countless other artists, challenged industry norms, and proved that punk rock's revolutionary spirit could thrive in indie rock's more introspective framework. "How To Socialise &