CAMERA OBSCURA: DESIRE LINES (2013)
1) Intro; 2) This Is Love
(Feels Alright); 3) Troublemaker; 4) William's Heart; 5) New Year's Resolution;
6) Do It Again; 7) Cri Du Coeur; 8) Every Weekday; 9) Fifth In Line To The
Throne; 10) I Missed Your Party; 11) Break It To You Gently; 12) Desire Lines.
Color me crazy, but I think that Desire Lines is the best album that
Camera Obscura have released so far, and, judging by the average weight of
other people's judgements (fans rather than critics — some positive reviews did
slip out), I seem to be alone on this. Apparently, people are getting mighty tired
of Tracyanne Campbell and her schtick, and they have every reason to, but all
this time, it has seemed to me that the band had been on a steady «learning spree»
— starting out with pure atmosphere and then slowly, taking as much time as
they need, studying the essence of songwriting and how to make your vocal and
instrumental melodies go not only in smoothed curves, but also in jagged
hook-angles.
Some of the weirdest criticisms of this album
that I have seen accused Desire Lines
of «playing it safe» and being too «commercial» and «mainstream». Personally, I
have yet to see «twee pop» moving into the mainstream and replacing Taylor
Swift and Katy Perry — and for what it's worth, Campbell and friends have
always «played it safe» from the very beginning. If what those criticisms
really mean is that the album sounds too overproduced, or too reliant on upbeat
pop rhythmics, or too happy, or too sugary, to me, these are not criticisms —
rather, they are confirmations of the simple fact that, for once, Camera
Obscura is making significant progress in learning how to become a regular,
sympathetic, solid, tasteful retro-oriented pop band.
Here is just a brief annotated list of the best
songs on the album and their main points of attraction. ʽThis Is Loveʼ is a
charming piece of soul-pop, driven by a memorable brass riff and featuring
Tracyanne at her sexiest, as she has finally become confident of her voice and
its modulating abilities — the "turn out the light, just give in to the
night" chorus dances quite close to «gorgeous» territory. ʽTroublemakerʼ
sounds like the greatest song that 10,000 Maniacs never wrote, what with that
folk-pop ascending riff and the moody "I know what you were talking about..."
chorus. ʽNew Year's Resolutionʼ is a little overlong, but the song's friendly,
faraway fuzz riff and the way it always escapes from the last notes of
Campbell's chorus is charming and captivating. ʽDo It Againʼ, the lead single,
may be essentially an unpretentious tribute to Motown exuberance ("call my
number, 26 and three-quarters..." is such a Motownish start), but it's a
perfectly viable variation, endowed with its own catchiness.
This is already four out of five, and although
the band still ends up running out of strong hooks by the time the second half
comes about, this is already three or four times as much as it used to be. Yes,
I think I can see the problem — much of the time, it sounds like Tracyanne has
been placed on Prozac: where, in the past, melancholy used to triumph over
happiness, now even the saddest songs sound like merry carousel rides (ʽBreak
It To You Gentlyʼ may share most of its title with ʽBreak It To Me Gentlyʼ, but the way the singer
delivers that chorus, you'd think there was nothing really to break in the
first place). However, one should hardly rate songs based on whether they sound
happy or sad — whether they sound smart or stupid is what really matters, and
since there is no over-emoting or distinctive fakeness in the delivery, I'd
rather take that sort of «mellowing out» as a sign of emotional maturity rather
than «selling out». Tracyanne Campbell «sells out» the day she starts sounding
(and looking!) like Lily Allen, which I could theoretically imagine, but not
without a brain transplant in the works.
Seriously, where the problem with those early
records was excessive seriousness, this relative transition to more «major»
moods, as well as lyrics that are less cluttered with useless historical trivia
(because we all know by now that the band leader is quite well educated and
astute), and actual attempts at singing complex vocal melodies rather than just
breathing out same-shaped icicles, as far as my opinion is concerned, helps the
band get more rather than less in
line with their true nature and musical destiny. Bored I still was, occasionally
(it usually always happens when they begin country-waltzing), but irritated —
no, not even remotely so. They have solidified their position as a good, if
not altogether great, pop band, and who knows, if this tendency continues and
it is simply a case of «late musical pubescence», we might still be in for a
big surprise in the future. Well, not very
likely, but then I hardly could expect anything of this quality after their
first two records, either. Thumbs up, of course.
Check "Desire Lines" (CD) on Amazon
Check "Desire Lines" (MP3) on Amazon
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