Camera Obscura Album: “To Change the Shape of an Envelope”

Wow, these are the first words that come to my mind when I think about this record, it's amazing. I've been obsesivly listening to this for about a week straight whenever I go out of my house. See I like to listen to music when I'm walking to class and I can make it to the library by the time the first song ends! Anyways this is great music... man is it lovely. Layered to the point of damnation and well thought out and intelligently sung lyrics. The keyboards are great! I don't think every band should use keyboards, but with these guys... man the keyboard is just as if it is the back bone strutting down their flesh and keeping them erect and walking on this green planet. Then it's as if a metamorphisis is occuring in the music, as the planescape of sound just collides and chrashes into the sky a change takes place and you are delivered into a new and exciting plane of musical exploration. The guitars jive, jam and mesh and there is something to be said about the lyrics and the singing. Fave track? Probably the first one or Cinemateque.

To Change the Shape of an Envelope is an album you're either gonna love or think it wallows in it's experimentation(hate, basically). Of course if you know what you're getting yourself into and arrived at this page, you're not part of the latter (hopefully). This album is nothing but raw sonic artistic expression. Mixing from many genres such as Hardcore Art Rock, Space Rock, and some shoegaze to boot.

Spine tingling guitars, synths that siren off like pipe organs from hell, and practically indecipherable vocals. At first listen it seems to be an overwhelming mess of sound, but under close scrutiny and repeated listens it becomes clear that this is carefully controlled chaos. What would first seem to be a monolith of sound, becomes subtle changes in layers and synchronized instrumentation. I kind of wish this style would have rubbed off more, but a person can only wish so much.

This an album to be judged on artistic merit rather than image. If one were to do so you've found yourself an obscure post-hardcore masterpiece that probably won't leave your listening rotation for days.

absolutely the greatest band from san diego since clikatat and just as intense

When I saw the Camera Obscura live, they had just lost their guitarist and were playing with only keyboards, bass and drums. Somehow it still managed to be the most brutal and aggressive live performance I've ever seen. After my friend bought their cd, I had a better understanding of what they were trying to do musically, but this album is still as aggressive, loud and often incomprehensible as their performance. I really don't know how to describe listening to this band anyway other than saying that it is like nothing you will hear anywhere else.

This is great I love it, when I first bought I set aside, but recently I can't stop listening to it. First off I love the sorta Milemarker vibe they have, yet they don't let thier arty pretensious side (such Milemarker) take over the music and that makes it more listenable. This is probably a better version of Milemarker, at first I was a little dubious about them becuase I thought they were a Milemarker rip off band, but it turns out that they are much better. Look buy this it has great keyboards (used tactfully)great vocals, good lyrics and enough aggression and passion to make me happy. Buy it very beautiful and very passionate and look up Camera Obscura in the dictionary it is a nice vocabulary word.