Camera Obscura is one of those bands that, even if you’re just listening to them impartially, gets you thinking about ALL these different things. First of all, in “I Missed Your Party,” lead singer and master indie pop extraordinaire Tracyanne Campbell keeps repeating “I’ll break it to you gently / Break it to you gently.”
To me, this is more horrifying than hearing Taylor Swift bark nasally out the words “We are never ever ever getting back together,” because if it’s one thing Campbell and crew have, it’s class. They’ve been doing this stuff for a solid decade, “Dory Previn” is an illustrious and sublime update on folk and dusty-ol’-indie, and, basically, hers is the kind of breakup, for this reason, that would really sting.
So it might be safe at this time to let coagulate a certain Camera Obscura m.o., and one that keeps them thrilling, album and album again, at that, and this would be the art of exhibiting such aforementioned class whilst refusing to shy away from unavoidable tragedies of life, which in their music are manifest as being more personal than they actually are. That is to say, as with all successful pop music, the themes are universal. Desire Lines is approximately my 11th favorite album of the year so far, but I’ll tell you I’d rather face almost any other lead singer in a genuineness and integrity competition. You’d have your hands full with this one.