Camera Obscura - Let’s Get Out Of This Country

A short description of Camera Obscura would usually entail the use of fellow Glaswegians’ name Belle and Sebastian. It’s not difficult to hear why, both bands using simple melodies to create a similarly unbridled optimism. Yet, with The Concretes’ producer Jari Haapalainen (and the Swedes’ vocalist Victoria Bergsman used occasionally) being in charge, it’s all Sixties percussion and dreamy, haunting vocals on ‘Let’s Get Out Of This Country’.

Tracks on ‘Let’s Get Out…’ largely fall in to two groups: the ‘sweet’ and the, well, ‘bittersweet’. Lead single and opening track ‘Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken’, an ode to songwriter Lloyd Cole is undoubtedly the former, as is closer ‘Razzle Dazzle Rose’. The regretful ‘Tears For Affairs’, despondent title track ‘Let’s Get Out Of This Country’ and longing ‘Come Back Margaret’ are the latter, yet like most of the album remaining upbeat in sound, if not in content.

Standout track ‘I Need All The Friends I Can Get’ sums up ‘Let’s Get Out Of This Country’ as a whole; Tracyanne Campbell’s floaty vocals joined by a suitably sugary choir in an uptempo tale of hypocrisy and self-awareness. It’s a collection of wonderfully sweet songs with equally bittersweet lyrics, something even Belle and Sebastian themselves would be proud of.