Mmmm... scottish...

Thank you Glasgow. You have given us so much, and while you might not be Manchester, Brooklyn, London, you’re still like a big music scene cities’ almost as cool little brother. Franz Ferdinand, Glasvegas, Snow Patrol, and of course Camera Obscura, all burst forth from your loins. The latter of course just birthing their fourth record, My Maudlin Career.

While there is nothing self pitying their new album, Camera Obscura could be seen as sentimental to their own career. The album celebrates all the best points of their sound that they have delicately crafted over the last decade. They aren’t necessarily breaking the mold, but they also refuse to simply sit back and re-write the old stuff. They know what works, and it ain’t broke, so there is no fixing required.

Now when you think of Glasgow you may not exactly think sunny bright eyed music, well neither does Camera Obscura. They are Scots who clearly are sitting on piles of 60′s pop records. The tracks bounce between slow gorgeous tracks of heartbreak to bubbly girl group poppers. Opening track (and first single) “French Navy” falls in the second category, all snappy drums and a big fat chorus. Meanwhile “James” is a lement on lost love so pretty you can’t imagine why anyone would ever leave this woman. The star of the show is Traceyanne Campbell’s voice. In the heartbreakers, she’s never sounds scourned, just hurt, but strong. In the dancers, she sounds so positively lovely and delighted, you suspect you might be the one she’s in love with. When she’s sad (which she doesn’t want to be again, as stated in “My Maudlin Career”), you wanna punch the guy for hurting her, and when she’s seemingly happy (like in “The Sweetest Thing”), you want to be the guy playing guitar in a canoe while she sings holding a parasol and bobbing her head. There’s even tracks like ”You Told A Lie” which could be snuck onto a She & Him album almost effortlessly.

This album might now be a revolution, but it sure is nice. It’s like if every Stars song was sung by Amy Millan and they had a hardcore fascination with the late fifties and sixties. Beautiful indie pop for kids just as sad as me that the Organ broke up (and always wondered what would happen if they had a mutant lovechild with the Pipettes and Belle & Sebastian).

Don’t Be Caught Without:

“French Navy”, “The Sweetest Thing”, “Other Towns And Cities”