From the welcoming Wall of Sound wail of \u201cFrench Navy,\u201d the opening track of Camera Obscura\u2019s excellent My Maudlin Career, I\u2019m quickly reminded how free and lasting Phil Spector\u2019s influence is, even as he faces a life of incarceration. \u201cFrench Navy\u201d has the band going back to the 1960s, but also reaching into \u201cLet’s Get Out of This Country\u201d, its breakthrough 2006 release. The mixture of new and old holds the comfort of a fond memory, but as the song ends, the transition to \u201cThe Sweetest Thing\u201d has Camera Obscura moving on. Goodbye Phil, have fun in your cell, we have more to achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What opens up is an ardent album of springy strings and playful melodies as the Glasgow outfit is atop their game, borrowing from the past while rocketing fast-forward with a certain freshness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The engine is propelled by Tracyanne Campbell, whose sweet voice belies the cheery songs with sour lyrics of heartbreak and cynicism. \u201cYou challenged me to write a love song\/ Here it is, I think I got it wrong\u2026\/The pain was too much to write and sing\u201d she croons on \u201cSweetest Thing.\u201d The listener is feted with country ballads (\u201cYou Told A Lie,\u201d \u201cAway With Murder\u201d) and Beach Boy homages (\u201cMy Maudlin Career\u201d). \u201cHoney In The Sun\u201d closes the session with a frolic of horns amid Campbell\u2019s plea of \u201ctraining to become as cold as ice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Poor Tracyanne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Phil\u2019s not the only one in solitary, but we\u2019re all the better for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From the welcoming Wall of Sound wail of \u201cFrench Navy,\u201d the opening track of Camera Obscura\u2019s excellent My Maudlin Career, I\u2019m quickly reminded how free and lasting Phil Spector\u2019s influence is, even as he faces a life of incarceration. \u201cFrench Navy\u201d has the band going back to the 1960s, but also reaching into \u201cLet’s Get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":744,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[60],"class_list":["post-743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-camera-obscura"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":745,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743\/revisions\/745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}