Desire Lines
For more than a decade, the Glaswegian indie-pop band Camera Obscura have made consistency a virtue. Their fifth album, featuring guest vocal harmonies from Neko Case and Jim James, clears out the symphonic pomp of 2009's My Maudlin Career to double down on classic beach music and soul underpinnings.
Camera Obscura has a very defined sonic aesthetic, and doesn’t deviate much from this sound from album to album. In the Scottish band’s case, this comfort zone combines wispy ’80s indie-pop jangle with ornate ’60s-pop fussiness and a lyrical outlook that tends toward Charlie Brown—in other words, a somewhat wary view…
After a four-year absence, Camera Obscura deliver a record loaded with such verve and panache that it makes it seem like they were never away.
“This is love,” Tracyanne Campbell sings early on Desire Lines, “It’s alright.” Like most of Campbell’s lyrics, that…
Glaswegian group Camera Obscura have dialed in their approach to indie pop perfection over the course of their lengthy run, starting out as the kid brother band to Belle & Sebastian, but finding a voice all their own by the time of their 2006 high-watermark album Let's Get Out of This Country.
For those unfamiliar with the term, ‘desire line’ is the poetic name given to those winding dirt trails that appear when people walk a certain route enough times, eroding the land with a memory of their journey. But Camera Obscura’s fifth album is no shortcut or re-tread; rather, it’s the sound of a band following their hearts, comfortable and confident in their own skin.
Typically, Tracyanne Campbell writes Camera Obscura's lyrics from an omniscient narrator's perspective, but even when she gets more personal, there's still a bit of a guarded tone at play.
By no means Camera Obscura’s best effort, Desire Lines is nevertheless a pleasurable listen.
Northern Transmissions Reviews 'Desire lines' From Camera Obscura. 'Desire lines' will be released on June 3rd via 4ad. Camera Obscura will tour this spring
The songs on Camera Obscura's latest have a new grandeur and assurance, writes <strong>Maddy Costa</strong>
It says something about the commodification of modern music that Scottish poppets Camera Obscura are probably best known for "French Navy" because it is used by wine company Echo Falls on the sponsored intros to Come Dine With Me. It is a brilliantly romantic rush of a song and I tweeted that it was a shame it was linked to selling booze. Comedian/fan Josie Long, not one to condone corporate sell-outs, responded "I just think 'I hope this means you are funded enough to write your beautiful songs!'"