Latest Release
- 18 SEPT 2024
- 5 Songs
- Let's Get Out of This Country · 2006
- My Maudlin Career · 2009
- My Maudlin Career · 2009
- Look to the East, Look to the West · 2024
- Look to the East, Look to the West · 2024
- Let's Get Out of This Country · 2006
- Look to the East, Look to the West · 2024
- Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi · 2001
- Look to the East, Look to the West · 2024
- Look to the Demos - EP · 2024
Essential Albums
- Camera Obscura perform a retro-twee pop that skirts between ‘60s girl-group homage and the skittering rhythms of fellow Scotsmen Belle and Sebastian, always with a sense of melancholy nagging our protagonist. Singer Tracyanne Campbell’s heart is always being broken and even when it’s not, her psyche is thrown off kilter by its manic swoon. The ensemble specializes in a blurry film noir where the sun breaks through the clouds just long enough to remind you that a storm is always brewing. “You Told a Lie” slows to reverb-ed strings and a dream-laced melody that channels the works of Lee Hazlewood and Serge Gainsbourg. “French Navy” captures the group at their most ebullient. “James” is a tour de force ballad brilliantly capturing the sorrow of a busted but somehow unrequited relationship. “Swans” swings with an optimistic Byrdsian folk-rock jangle amongst the reverb. The title track builds a Phil Spectorian wall of sound. “Other Towns and Cities” sounds as if someone threw Campbell down a deep dark well, which is where her emotions lead her anyway.
Albums
- 2013
- 2013
- 2009
- 2009
- 2009
Artist Playlists
- Indie pop as deliciously ephemeral as a summer romance.
About Camera Obscura
Formed in Glasgow in 1996, Camera Obscura crafted an affable sound that helped define the twee pop genre of the early aughts. The group’s 2001 debut, Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi, was produced by Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch, whose own band’s sound would regularly draw comparisons to Camera Obscura’s. Tracks like the nostalgia-fueled single "Eighties Fan” established the band’s reputation for bright melodies, clever lyrics and plaintive vocals from singer Tracyanne Campbell. They followed with a stream of critically praised, charmingly breezy albums and songs, including the Motown-spiced 2006 track "Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken", which was featured in film and on television. The once-folksy group explored a new orchestral sound on “French Navy”, helping push their 2009 album, My Maudlin Career, onto the U.K. and U.S. charts. In 2013, producer Tucker Martine helped them find a sun-kissed sound on Desire Lines, before the death of their longtime keyboard player, Carey Lander, led to an extended hiatus.
- ORIGIN
- Glasgow, Scotland
- FORMED
- 1996
- GENRE
- Alternative