Camera Obscura - Let'sGet Out of This Country

Sat 10th Feb, 2007 in Music Reviews

Let’s get out of this country. Let’s. Get. Out of this country. Let’s Get Out of This Country, Camera Obscura’s third LP, has probably the most misleading title you’ll see for a while. Perhaps the band members thought it would funny to name the album after some kind of ironic double entendre. I guess that’s the sort of thing these art college types do to amuse themselves when they’re not sipping green tea and discussing the flaws of mainstream postmodernist thought.

Let’s backtrack slightly. Camera Obscura are from Glasgow, a city known for its music; Belle and Sebastian, Sons and Daughters, Teenage Fanclub and the Jesus and Mary Chain, to name but a few. Down the road you have Cocteau Twins, The Delgados and the Beta Band. Folksy indie pop and rock has been Scotland’s trademark sound for decades now, and after about 10 seconds of this record it’s evident that Camera Obscura fit right into that groove. Let’s get out of this country? I don’t think so.

Let’s Get Out of This Country also shows that Tracyanne Campbell, Nigel Baillie, Gavin Dunbar, Carey Lander, Kenny McKeeve and Lee Thomson have no intentions to get out of this country music. The points at which the album strays from the track beaten by the band’s compatriots all take on an unobtrusive and inoffensive sound that, at times, is in danger of slipping into elevator music territory. That aside, Let’s Get Out of This Country is, on the whole, a pleasant listen that would make the ideal soundtrack for a 20-degree, partially sunny/partially cloudy day spent sipping green tea and… discussing the flaws of mainstream postmodernist thought. Yes, Camera Obscura fall under that repulsive ‘twee’ classification and that will probably never change. If you have a spare moment, you may want to try singing Belle and Sebastian’s Me and the Major to the tune of Let’s Get Out of This Country or Razzle Dazzle Romance over the top of If You’re Feeling Sinister and marvel at how glove-like the fit is.

But what does this record have that all those other bands don’t? There’s definitely a naïveté on here that you don’t normally see: while a Belle and Sebastian song will wrap themes of coming out, casual sex and self-loathing up in a tidy little cardigan package, Let’s Get Out of This Country doesn’t bother with the sinister themes. It’s honest, heartfelt indie-pop laced with country and retro harmonies that you can’t help but sing along with. Rich instrumentation adds a smooth and sophisticated finish to the album’s relatively simple tracks (organ on Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken, strings on Come Back Margaret) while Campbell’s voice switches from stylish and suave to bouncy and cheerful, putting her in the same league as that other Campbell from Glasgow.

While Let’s Get Out of This Country doesn’t do a huge amount to set the band apart from their neighbours and fails to avoid cliche and stereotype, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better album of this kind… until the next Belle and Sebastian record comes out. One word of warning though: lend this one to your parents and you probably won’t ever get it back.