Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

Album comes out April 20th through 4AD and first single is "French Navy," which I think is up to par with the the best moments on Let's Get Out of the Country - though it's no "Hey, Lloyd" (What is?).

i don't know if it's a rare opinion or not but i think every album they've done has been inferior to the previous one

having said that they've all still been good records, and i'm interested to hear what they mean from the quote "Some people who have heard it say it's intense and quite dark."

also hate the sleeve, but it's not as bad as the anni rossi album. so much for a consistent aesthetic

i didn't really like it :/
i guess i've never really gotten into them properly, other than "suspended from class", which i REALLY like. i was kind of excited to hear this for some reason, so i'll give it another try soon

ah, i see it's leaked. i've liked each album more than the last (in a gentle counterpoint to electricsound) so i'm really looking forward to this. they're playing like a bajillion times during SXSW but attending showcases is a pain in the ass, so unless somebody tells me they're smokin' live, i'll skip it.

it is not intense, but it is a little dark! country music is big in scotland, huh?

i think it is most similar to the first album but with much glossier production. it is country. it's all rather dour. 'james' is a beautiful song. i like it more each time i listen.

Yeah, "James" is classic. "You Told A Lie" is pretty great as well.

there is a fancy video, well for them, for 'french navy' as well.

The album's a grower, and someone's pointed out the similarity between "French Navy" and Madness's "Embarrassment."

I was given a promo copy of this and listened to it today. It's agonisingly bad. No, I didn't really expect to like it -- I've not been able to stand parping Glasgow tweeness for a long time -- but there's something particularly vomit-making about this, particularly the singing. It's just so fucking lifeless.

I was musing about this on Facebook earlier: sometimes I wonder if my hatred for this kind of music is based on classical conditioning, ie I associate it with a shitty time of my life (living in a terrible flat in Glasgow in 1998/1999, when you couldn't move for Belle-and-Sebastian wannabes, and smoking way too much shit dope). But then I think, no: what about everything else I listened to at the time? I still love -- for instance -- Mogwai and Low.

Ultimately, I think I woke up one day and realised life's too fucking short for C86 with trumpets.

(And I do feel bad hating on stuff I pretty much expected to hate anyway; I guess the level to which I hated it surprised me.)

They're nice people, and I liked quite a bit of the last album, but French Navy sounds perilously close to a twee Glasvegas. Ouch.

Yeah, I didn't like this anywhere near as much as the last one. Nothing here reaches the heights of "Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken," "Come Back Margaret" or "Let's Get Out of This Country." A bit dull, me thinks.

too drunk to contribute very substantially but from what i've heard of the new stuff it's no forward step at all from what they've done before.. french navy is nice enough but it's hard to fathom why they felt the need to make another album that sounds like an outtake from the last few

My first impression of the new one was that it continued the more overwrought pop of its predecessors, but with the melodrama jacked up far enough that it was really straining for effect.

I'd really like to love it, but I don't think I will.

Loved the last one. I'll be disappointed if this one's no good.

i think it's rather good. it's no leap forward, sure, but so what. they do what they do.

See, that's my big problem with a lot of indie pop bands: they do what they do. I'm not expecting them to suddenly go dubstep or doom, but it would be nice to see indie pop acts step outside their generic comfort zone from time to time, go beyond all the usual reference points. C'mon, dazzle me!

french navy is nice enough but it's hard to fathom why they felt the need to make another album that sounds like an outtake from the last few

I don't think there's anything wrong with giving people more of the same, if the same is what they want. I'd be quite happy with another 10 new songs that wouldn't have sounded out of place on "Let's Get Out of this Country".

I was given a promo copy of this and listened to it today. It's agonisingly bad. No, I didn't really expect to like it -- I've not been able to stand parping Glasgow tweeness for a long time -- but there's something particularly vomit-making about this, particularly the singing. It's just so fucking lifeless.

I was musing about this on Facebook earlier: sometimes I wonder if my hatred for this kind of music is based on classical conditioning, ie I associate it with a shitty time of my life (living in a terrible flat in Glasgow in 1998/1999, when you couldn't move for Belle-and-Sebastian wannabes, and smoking way too much shit dope). But then I think, no: what about everything else I listened to at the time? I still love -- for instance -- Mogwai and Low.

Ultimately, I think I woke up one day and realised life's too fucking short for C86 with trumpets.

― a tiny, faltering megaphone (grimly fiendish), Thursday, 16 April 2009 12:55 (2 days ago)

Tell us some more about yourself

The ballads get better with a few more plays. The big mistake was putting "French Navy" at the top of the album (they did the same thing with "Lloyd," I think). After that captivating number there's nothing else on Maudlin that competes and it subsequently sounds like one big comedown from that song.

I'm surprised there isn't a lot more enthusiasm about this. The tracks I've heard so far are beautiful.

listened to it today on Spotify and was surprised how much I really enjoyed it. Saw the Channel 4 thing tonight and boy does Paul Morley love them.

it's on emusic as of today so i'll be getting it tonite i guess

i am still thinking that maybe the school's album will make everyone forget this one. maybe the problem some have with camera obscura is that they don't ever seem like they are having any fun. 'sweetest thing' is one of their best tracks ever. i am a sucker for indiepop bands doing indiepop/country then. the back end has 'james', 'forest and sands', 'honey in the sun', it's hardly front loaded.

i am still thinking that maybe the school's album will make everyone forget this one

i hope so. their singles so far have been perfect and excite me more than CO ever have, which is really saying something

this sounds really great to me but i can't tell if i'm gonna get sick of all the opulent orchestration, same thing kinda happened w/ me w/ 'night falls over kortedala'

she sounds kinda like neko case imo

I kind of love their over-the-top orchestration and when I saw the a few years ago, I thought they were far better live than I had expected. I think I'm going to see them on this tour so I should just go buy the album already.

Saw the Channel 4 thing tonight and boy does Paul Morley love them.

Just watching this just now. He doesn't half!

I tend to agree with him that it's too easy to peg them in with B&S due to shared connections, but I think B&S are fairly misunderstood and put in wrong boxes as well, so what do I know?

I haven't listened to My Maudlin Career all the way through yet. I shall do so later. I am not expecting anything groundbreaking though, so don't expect breathy pronouncements of amazingness to follow.

What channel 4 thing?

There was a 15 minute special called "A Band that Starts with C", or something like that, by Paul Morley on Channel 4 the other night about them. Basically it was him talking over clips of their videos, with snippets of an interview he did with the band thrown in.

"French Navy" is killer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IhygBvzCX8

"French Navy" is killer.

definitely

How come Gav doesn't get a close up?

He's not as pretty as Carey or Tracy.

well, i was very underwhelmed after two listens, but wowed after 5 listens and 4 glasses of bad wine.

the songs are much much better than id originally judged, even tho ive sobered up and got half drunk again.

wow i'm rather sassy on this thread

i've grown into this record but it's more that i enjoy it when it turns up in my playlist rather than seeking it out to hear it

as im not very partial to the idea of "grower" albums, this album pretty much dint get played for a month or more. but then im drinking again, riding my bike out do do some errands, and well, pretty much swooning and singing along at twilight stoplight crosswalks. so good one camera obscura.

I really haven't followed them since their first album. Are they still getting more popular? I was wondering if the move to 4ad from elefant made any difference. I bought their first single when that came out, think it was their first, has some girl in the snow on it.

yeah that's the first one, park and ride

welp they almost certainly have a bigger marketing budget on 4ad, but i have no idea to what extent that has translated into sales

I think I sort of forgot about the when Tompaulin put their lp out. Gonna grab the new one from emusic.

Just bought that. The California Snow Story cd is only one pound ninty nine too now :).

last comment for now is

i'd like to celebrate you dear,
all and all, it's been
a pretty good year

is a hard fucking knife in my heart.

i really like this cd

Listening to this reminds me how much fun mopey music can be. I haven't listened to any new Morrissey in years, but this reminds me of what I used to enjoy about his music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T8ukGIqTwc

lovely as always, album is out in may

<3

Nice song. I loved seeing Edwyn Collins pop up in the teaser video they posted.

I was just wondering about this band. I didn't know about the horrible news with Lander's passing until just now. So sad. I'm guessing they dropped the Camera Obscura name.

Wonderful song. It's good to see Tracyanne back in a new capacity.

xp just a side project

New albums out

Tracyanne Campbell has such a wonderful voice - mournful, expressive and hopeful all at once. I dont understand why she isn't the only voice on this. Even her barely-whispered backing vocals on "Jacqueline" overshadow Danny Coughlan's attempts to hold the spotlight.

Was just reading about Traceyanne & Danny ( on tour now). I need to investigate

I do like this album, but I would like it more the less Danny was present. The songs are really good and his voice isn't *awful* but it's just not the same.

so glad to hear about traceyanne and danny project, wish they'd visit CO, appears no, tho.

wow i missed carey's passing somehow even to now, that's horrible.

Her voice is definitely better than his. I like the twee cuts better than the folky roots ones.

So I gather that John Henderson’s departure from Camera Obscura was acrimonious. There is an interview with Traceyanne Campbell where she tells the interviewer not to even ask why Henderson is no longer in the band.

But as someone who has never been to a Camera Obscura concert: what happened post-2003 to the early songs which Henderson sang? Do they still get played, or did the band decide to abandon them completely?

Camera Obscura Announces First New Album In Over Ten Years

Look to the East, Look to the West Out May 3rd on Merge

Watch the Video for Lead Single “Big Love”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raC2EfuOi5Q

Today, the legendary Scottish indie-pop band Camera Obscura announces Look to the East, Look to the West, their first new album in over ten years, out May 3rd on Merge Records. The group, led by guitarist & vocalist Tracyanne Campbell, have reunited with Jari Haapalainen, who produced the band’s 2006 album Let’s Get Out of This Country and 2009’s My Maudlin Career, and have crafted an album that simultaneously recalls why longtime fans have ferociously loved them for decades while also being their most sophisticated effort to date.

Lead single “Big Love” relishes in the space between country rock and prog, a pining break-up anthem featuring the soaring pedal steel of Tim Davidson. It’s a Nashville Sound heartbreaker, tackling the complexity of wanting to rekindle a bad relationship with Campbell’s uncanny ability to render the past: “It was a big love, she said / That’s why it took ten years to get her out of her head,” she begins. “‘Big Love’ is our tribute to Waylon Jennings, with a nod to Sandy Denny and prog rock band Scope,” says Campbell. “It’s a song about not looking back, having faith in the present and future.”


Look to the East, Look to the West was the most hard-fought album of Camera Obscura’s career. Following the 2015 passing of founding keyboardist and friend Carey Lander, the band went into an extended hiatus. They remained in contact, but their status was uncertain until they announced their return, having been invited to perform as part of Belle & Sebastian’s 2019 Boaty Weekender cruise festival, along with a pair of sold-out warm-up shows in Glasgow. Donna Maciocia (keys and vocals) joined founding members Kenny McKeeve (guitar and vocals), Gavin Dunbar (bass), and Lee Thomson (drums and percussion) for those shows and has since become a regular songwriting partner of Campbell’s.

Recorded in the same room where Queen wrote “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Look to the East, Look to the West feels big, a widescreen reframing of Camera Obscura’s sound that, paradoxically, saw the band go back to basics—there are no string or brass arrangements, with more emphasis placed on piano, synthesizers, Hammond organ, and drum machines, and, perhaps most strikingly, the group have dropped the veil of reverb that characterized their previous albums. The tinges of country and soul that give Camera Obscura’s baroque take on pop music its bittersweet edge have never been more apparent—guitars shimmer into the distance, keys haunt, and Campbell’s voice searches for the heart, reflecting on love, loss, and the passage of time.

Look to the East, Look to the West is the sound of a band that has grown more confident in its sound and purpose than ever. It is Camera Obscura at their best and most evocative, an album that completely rearranges the listener’s emotional core, leaving them sad and exhilarated at the same time. Camera Obscura’s catalog is replete with songs people point to as life-changing, songs that will stick with them all their lives. Look to the East, Look to the West has 11 of them; take your pick.

Pre-order Look to the East, Look to the West

Look to the East, Look to the West Tracklist:
1. Liberty Print
2. We're Going to Make It in a Man's World
3. Big Love
4. Only a Dream
5. The Light Nights
6. Sleepwalking
7. Baby Huey (Hard Times)
8. Denon
9. Pop Goes Pop
10. Sugar Almond
11. Look to the East, Look to the West

Camera Obscura Tour Dates
(New Dates in Bold)
Thu. May 2 - Hebden Bridge, UK @ The Trades Club
Sat. May 4 - Leeds, UK @ Stylus
Mon. May 6 - Manchester, UK @ Academy 2
Tue. May 7 - London, UK @ Koko
Thu. May 9 - Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2
Fri. May 10 - Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy 2
Sat. May 11 - Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom
Wed. May 29 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Thu. May 30 - Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
Fri. May 31 - Montreal, QC @ Theatre Fairmont
Sat. Jun. 1 - Toronto, ON @ The Concert Hall
Mon. Jun. 3 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Tue. Jun. 4 - Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
Fri. Jun. 7 - Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
Sat. Jun. 8 - Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
Mon. Jun. 10 - San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
Tue. Jun. 11 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent Theater
Wed. Jun. 12 - Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
Fri. Jun. 14 - Dallas, TX @ Studio at the Factory
Sat. Jun. 15 - Austin, TX @ Scoot Inn
Mon. Jun. 17 - Atlanta, GA @ Variety
Tue. Jun. 18 - Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
Wed. Jun. 19 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Thu. Jun. 20 - New York, NY @ Webster Hall
Sat. Jun. 22 - Mon. Jun. 24 - Mexico City, MX @ Foro Indie Rocks!
For more information, contact:
Patrick Tilley | Pitch Perfect PR - patrick at pitchperfectpr.com

This is just the best news. I've missed these guys.

Baby Huey (Hard Times)

wait what

For some reason in the last couple of weeks I've decided never to support this band again, oh well.

What, were you sending them cheques

not directly

I think My Maudlin Career is still my favorite.

I like the sound of Big Love, the odd country touch, the held back chorus, the very nice bridge and bass work in the instrumental part. Brilliant. It takes me back.

why be coy abt it, CaAL? tracyanne campbell has the transphobia brainworms. shit sucks.

I guess this is a good time to finally listen to Desire Lines? it came out right around the time I was getting into Let's Get Out of This Country and My Maudlin Career, but something (Pitchfork review? Keith's post upthread?) convinced me that Desire Lines was a huge dropoff in quality and an unfortunate lapse into adult contemporary mush. I think I've finally come to the terms with the fact that former p4k darlings are no longer young or cool. new song is nice

why be coy abt it, CaAL? tracyanne campbell has the transphobia brainworms. shit sucks.

― what followed the axes was just the beginning (cat)

Fuck! Gutted about this.

Desire Lines is great, as is this new one!

Desire Lines is great, as is this new one!

a small update on this as I’m aware some people have felt unnecessarily attacked: a lot of people don’t know about tracyanne campbell’s (now deleted) history of online transphobia (vocal support for maya forstater, e.g.) and I realise it’s not fair to tar the band’s fans … https://t.co/LlBX0UrPc1

— Robert Dallas Gray (@rdg_music) January 12, 2024

well, shit.

by the way, if you’re looking for receipts, here are some. tracyanne deleted a load of tweets in the last year or so; you’ll have to use your imagination, but it’s fairly obvious what’s going on

if Traceyanne's comments were really so alarming, then why didn't LWoB dude take the time to archive (or at least mention) the offending tweets 4+ years ago while he still had the chance? he's a legendary guitarist but his cancellation game is weak

If she's 'phobic, she sucks, but if the evidence is deleted, as RDG says it is, how can we (the we who never followed her) know? Anybody got screen shots where we don't have to use our imagination? Only other thing about I've found is an accusation on Reddit.

"only other thing about *it* I've found," that is.

Camaraderie's comment concerned me, so I poked around online. That's what I found.

I'm really hoping this somehow isn't true. This band have meant so much to me for so long. I'll definitely be holding off buying tickets for their upcoming show here in Minnesota.

yeah she was a vocal transphobe in 2019 and has since shut up about it and deleted the tweets but you can see still she follows a bunch of them on twitter. also worth noting that francis macdonald of teenage fanclub is camera obscura's manager and he used to be loudly transphobic too

rdg wasn't even on twitter in 2019 which is probably why he didn't speak up at the time but i'm glad he is now

here's people arguing in response to one of her tweets at the time:

feeling more empathy for a person getting flack online for liking *en masse* tweets in support of someone who's main thing is that trans women are men / vice versa, over trans people who have to see one of their favourite artists do this, isn't it.

— gwenth (@morverncaller) December 20, 2019

here's some of the many twitter likes people took notice of, but there's a whole lot more

https://i.imgur.com/9SGEynm.png

oh good, we can play the plausible deniability game yet again

there's no real plausible deniability here

i agree

why be coy abt it, CaAL? tracyanne campbell has the transphobia brainworms. shit sucks

yeah, i get that.

h8 when bigoted artists trying to be all tight-lipped about what they believe! it's such a crappy feeling every time it comes to light, like i was just sitting there enjoying one of my fave snacks and finally noticed the label where it says the main ingredient is rancid monkey splooge. i didn't want to be enjoying that!

yeah I've learned from experience that people don't want to know about cochineal

Personally, fwiw, it's not so much about plausible deniability, and more about expectations and how strict you want to be with the artists you follow, and how much tracking or work you are ready to do to be consistent about it. This red line is subjective. You can allow artists to be flawed, or disappointing, or bigoted, and it does not mean condoning. Or you don't allow it. In the end, I am not particularly interested in what the Camera Obscura singer thinks about trans rights, at least not any more than anyone in particular, or than any other issue. I do think it's sad if you use your celebrity as a platform to express backward views, and even more if you are militant about it. But an artist is not close enough to me for me to "take action", since I don't see listening to their next album as any form of endorsement of any of her views. Again, I respect people for whom it's a deal breaker when it comes to their attention, whether it's for being personally consistent or because they hope it will have an impact, but I don't see my role as a listener to try to vicariously shut the artist down, that would be militant work imo and more directly achieved with calls to boycott, open letters etc.

And just to say, the above is in no way meant to dismiss how trans people are feeling about artists opposing their rights, it's strictly a personal take on what a listener can/should do.

available on ltd. 'Peak vinyl'

Agree with Nabozo. Especially when the transgression here seems to be largely a matter of guilt by association.

idk what TC did, said, or posted, but I vehemently disagree with framing this as a dispute over "trans rights," unless you think the right to "be alive" or receive appropriate medical care is best understood as a civil right

^^^

i listened to the new album by the smile yesterday, made by a known israel sympathizer and a guy who is at least married to a transphobe, but i guess i rationalize that bc radiohead's music has been a part of my life for so long that i'm always going to want to hear what they're up to and i just gotta hope they fix their hearts in the background of my mind while i'm listening

it is also incredibly easy to be a human being who does not follow graham linehan or like his tweets, because he has been advocating for my annihilation for like almost ten years at this point, maybe longer?

otm, and frankly, liking a tweet is not "guilt by association," it is a public endorsement of someone's speech / viewpoint. you can argue that shouldn't matter either, but it can't be dismissed as mere association

when an artist reveals views like that, it just makes me question their entire public-facing persona, and the sincerity of their art. as if they're trying to con people into believing they're something more than basic bigots with a talent for melody. w/Roisin Murphy, it was probably even worse because her entire career was built upon this supposed embracing of the LGBTQ community, when she actually harbored these deeply ignorant ideas.

idk what TC did, said, or posted, but I vehemently disagree with framing this as a dispute over "trans rights," unless you think the right to "be alive" or receive appropriate medical care is best understood as a civil right

― rob, Wednesday, January 31, 2024 4:45 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don't really know either so this was a shortcut, although you have me puzzled here. Right to life is a civil right. Health care is a social right.

Maybe this is a cultural difference, but the right to life is not a civil right in my world; it's usually framed as a natural or human right, when it's included in a rights-based analysis. Health care may get framed as a social right (though that's not a term I'm familiar with tbh), but given its direct connection to the right to life, to me it's closer to a human right.

But my point was more that this isn't a political debate over, for example, the right to not be discriminated against at work for being trans, it's a struggle against a deliberate campaign of extermination with the goal of eliminating (annihilating as ivy said) trans people entirely. IMO talking about that as "trans rights" is way overly generous to the fascists who welcome any fig leaf of respectability for their genocidal project.

Civil and political VS economic, social and cultural are the two main categories of human rights for historical reasons, since there were two blocks at the time the Covenants elaborated on the Declaration. You're right that we don't really speak like that any more and just say human rights.

The special attention granted to LGBTQ people is under the angle of discrimination because the rest (protection from threats, hate speech etc) is presumably already covered unless you live in criminalizing countries... except of course that some states have proven to fail / be complicit and then it becomes a judicial battle to enforce. But speaking of rights is still correct imo.