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My Maudlin Career
Rating: 7.2 | 0 User Reviews | Send to Friend
Despite what the lyrics of the title track might insinuate, Camera Obscura’s “maudlin career” hasn’t come to an end. Far from it: the Glaswegian band still base their lyrical travails around dusty libraries, love, and longing. What has changed, however, is the music. There’s a maturity present on this, their fourth album, that coalesces with the group’s established sound to produce a record that’s positively muscular in comparison to their prior work. This is due mainly to the lush string arrangements that accentuate several songs as well as front woman Tracyanne Campbell’s more confident vocal style throughout. From “French Navy”, which kicks things off with a sumptuous chorus, to the closing horn-adorned “Honey in the Sun”, Camera Obscura have crafted a near perfect pop album. In between, we get snippets of Phil Spector-esque girl groups (“The Sweetest Thing” / “Swans”), country-tinged tunes (“Forest and Sands” / “You Told a Lie”), and Mazzy Star mood pieces (“Other Towns and Cities”) that constantly change the record’s tone. Much like Belle and Sebastian before them (with whom the band are intrinsically linked – they share a hometown, have shared a drummer, and Stuart Murdoch produced their early material), Camera Obscura have smeared their fey, twee beginnings with a Technicolor hue. That’s not to say that this album is without its flaws – as with many “pop” or string-laden albums it can suffer from sounding too saccharine in parts -- yet it seems, after four albums, Camera Obscura’s maudlin career is on the right track. (4AD)
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