Titus writes:
Camera
Obscura are an indie band from Glasgow, like Belle & Sebastian who
I recently blogged about. Their roots go back to 1996, and was formed
by Tracyanne Campbell, John Henderson & Gavin Dunbar. David
Skirving later joined as permanent guitarist. Their music has often
been compared to Belle & Sebastian, and fairly or unfairly referred
to as “twee pop”. I don’t know who said this but they have been
praised for their “honest, wide and adult approach to heartbreak,
romantic liaisons and escapism”. An extremely accurate statement in my
opinion. They have made six studio albums to date, eighteen singles,
and recorded five sessions for John Peel, plus a couple of ‘one-off’
EP/LP compilations for Record Store Day – ‘The 4AD Sessions EP’ in
2014, and ‘Making Money’ in 2022.
Their
first album ‘Biggest Bluest Hi Fi’ was released as long ago as 2001,
and ironically produced by Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian. By
this time Carey Lander had joined as a keyboard player. In February
2009, the band signed with 4AD Records of London, and almost
immediately released their fourth album ‘My Maudlin Career’. This LP
gave the group their first ever top 40 UK success, and it also reached
the U.S.Billboard 200 and the top 40 in the Republic of Ireland. Again
in the year 2009, Camera Obscura released a special edition single for
Record Store Day entitled ‘French Navy’. You know what I’m going to
say next......Not a lot of people know......that ‘French Navy’ was also
used by Echo Falls, who are none other than the sponsors of well known
cookery programme ‘Come Dine with Me’, at the start of each episode and
during advert breaks.
The
band enjoyed a good next part of their career with 4AD as their record
company, until 2011 when Carey Lander fell ill with osteosarcoma,
which is an aggressive type of bone cancer. She responded well to
treatment at first, but by 2015 the illness had returned and Camera
Obscura cancelled planned gigs in the U.S. Lander set up a ‘Just
Giving’ page for research into the illness, but sadly passed away on 11
October 2015. As of August 2024, the sum of donations is £103,000.
An understandable hiatus for the band followed. In 2018 Tracyanne and a
guy called Danny Coughlan made an album ‘Tracyanne & Danny’, from
which they released ‘Alabama’ which is a moving tribute to Lander.
In
the Summer of 2018, Camera Obscura re-formed and participated in a
warm-up show at St Luke’s & The Winged Ox in Glasgow, with proceeds
going to the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice in memory of Carey
Lander. The band took a difficult decision and brought in a replacement
keyboard player, Donna Maciocia of Amplifico, who also provided
backing vocals. In 2020, the group’s preparation of a new album had to
be put on hold, due to the Covid 19 pandemic, but in May 2024 a new
album was released ‘Look to the East, Look to the West’. This is their
first studio LP since 2013 and has received wide praise.
I
have always admired Camera Obscura’s determination and their will to
succeed. They have overcome many an adversity, their music is so
under-rated, their lyrics are magnificent and I hope you like the track I
have asked Lex to play. It is ‘Swans’ from the ‘My Maudlin Career’
album, which can be found here. I’ve chosen it because not only is it a
great track, but because Carey’s excellent keyboard playing can be
heard prominently.