CAMERA OBSCURA
Biggest Bluest Hi Fi (Merge)
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

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To describe Camera Obscura's cute, smallish folk rock sound as an exact duplication of Belle and Sebastian is unfair: so far they lack Stuart Murdoch's signature verbal wit, they come off as vastly more feminine, and so far they haven't fully developed their own cryptic repetition of images. Aside from those superficial differences however, Camera Obscura plays on Belle and Sebastian's zeitgeist, circa If You're Feeling Sinister, combining simple guitars, almost muted drums and nifty keyboard/orchestral accompaniments with remarkable aplomb. Opening with "Happy New Year," a delightful call and response manifesto of individuality, up through the lovely balladry on "Arrangements of Shapes and Space," Camera Obscura's forthcoming Biggest Bluest Hi Fi proves it is more than just another 34 minute rock record in the bin: it is a signal from across the pond that bigger things are afoot.

In truth, Biggest Bluest Hi Fi contains Camera Obscura's first album of material, given new US life in re-release form. On the heels of a January sleeper smash Underachievers Please Try Harder, Camera Obscura doesn't sound like something capable of exploding, but tracks like "Eighties Fan" (#8 single on John Peel's Festive 50 Radio Show and produced by Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian) carry the same shy raucous energy as "Boy With the Arab Strap." For this Glasgow boy/girl collective first came second, a technicality that fans will surely relish from a discography that in time will be an archive of pop rock treasures.

The stream of small, gentle rock records from Scotland looks to have already developed from novelty into a full fledged phenomenon with relatively little fanfare. The long lasting effects of the British Invasion are everywhere; one can only hope that this movement carries forward as strongly.

© 2004 - Erick Mertz