Camera Obscura Album: “Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi [Remaster]”

As with most people, I bought this album after enjoying their sophomore release ("Underachievers Please Try Harder") tremendously, and found this to be at least as good, and in some ways, better.

This album is a lot less pretentious, a bit more tuneful, and lacks the filler of "Underachievers..." For all those who cry wolf at any similarites between this band and Belle & Sebastian, sit and spin. I think B&S would sell their souls to make anything this vital again.

"Eighties Fan" is a nice homage to The Jesus And Mary Chain, with it's "Just Like Honey" drum intro, while "Happy New Year" kicks the album off like no other pop song could (or has, in recent memory). My personal fave has to be "Pen And Notebook", with brilliantly simplistic lyrics, and a pristine, very spare production that can't be touched.

This sounds like your going back to the times when life was laid back, happy and care free. . . somewhere outside the polluted city. . . amongst the trees, green grasses, birds, sea, blue skies . . . . . nature at its finest. . . how life was so simple then . . its the sound of this album. . .

Admittedly, I am a sucker for debuts, largely because I believe that in many cases they capture the essence of a band's sound. While some of their later releases may have garnered more positive critical reviews, Camera Obscura's debut CD, "Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi" is very good. Although there are some electric guitar parts, the overall sound is more acoustic, with occasional orchestral backup. Among the multiple terms that I have seen used to describe the music of Camera Obscura, "melancholic dream pop" seems to be the most apt. The lyrics generally are poignant, and Tracyanne Campbell's vocals are beautiful. In contrast to their later CDs, however, her vocals are counterpointed on many of the songs by the vocals of John Henderson, which in my opinion adds to the overall quality of the sound. Unfortunately, the last three songs on the CD are the weakest, which takes away from its overall pleasure quotient. However, all of the other songs are good, indeed, very good. I highly recommend this CD.