Camera Obscura - Let’s Get Out of This Country

It’s 4pm PST right now, so I guess I was introduced to Camera Obscura’s Let’s Get Out of This Country about five hours ago. I’m always wary of writing reviews so early in the listening process, but I’ve listened to the opening track, the superbly titled “Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken” four times now. I think I’m about ready for analysis. I’ve also got a week before this review gets posted, so I’m assuming that I’ll listen to this song another 128 times.

(Apologies, ladies, if a fellow named Lloyd just dumped you.)

This album is delightful.

And how many albums would you describe with that adjective? I can think of a select few: Mysteries of Life’s Keep a Secret would be one. The Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots would be another. Jon Brion’s soundtracks and production have this element, a rare whimsical quality. To clarify, it’s a tough line to walk between delightful and cloyingly cute, but Camera Obscura tiptoe admirably.

Fronted by the charmingly accented Tracyanne Campbell, this Glaswegian quintet have produced a collection of tracks to be remembered. All of these tracks are solid, with a few standouts. The second track, “Tears for Affairs” is a jaunty lounge song. The title track, “Let’s Get Out of This Country” stirs strings and a pleasant country guitar riff like chocolate chips into cookie dough. “If Looks Could Kill” takes the pace up a notch, quickening your pulse with their most danceable track.

Let’s Get Out of This Country isn’t the most spectacular album of the year, but it’s a solid batch of pleasant pop anchored by some of the better songs. Many music industry insiders are predicting a return to a singles-based music market based on internet music stores like Napster and iTunes, and “Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken” is available as both an EP and single. The transition may be a mixed blessing: on one hand, The Black-Eyed Peas and Ashlee Simpson won’t have to fill entire albums with crap just to get a single released, but it may also cost us the exemplary work of bands like Camera Obscura. While Country does have it’s catchy tunes, it’s the songs in between that count, and it would be a shame to lose those.

Camera Obscura, Let’s Get Out of This Country: B+