Desire Lines

Desire Lines, the fifth chapter of an already-sterling discography, sees Glaswegian indie outfit Camera Obscura coming of age, capitalising convincingly on the twee aesthetic and themes of love and loss that have characterised their humble but compelling career. The album may be more of a consolidation than an epiphany, but Desire Lines reverberates with maturity and tact, filtering butter-soft synth tones and deft, trickling electric guitar nuggets through a discoloured, 1960s lens.

On Desire Lines, Camera Obscura are wallowing (as ever) in the throes of heartache and scuppered love affairs. In the annual skirmish for “soundtrack-to-summer” status, Desire Lines may just emerge triumphant, as each song recalls the patter of drizzle against the window panes of a British summer. A sense of speaking voice has been astutely forged in the interplay of aural and lyrical content: rue and nostalgia dovetail in bittersweet fashion through every mournful syllable of Tracyanne Campbell’s pitch-perfect voice. Her vocal style is a musical instrument in its own right; one whose wistful timbre caramelises the most melancholic of lyrical themes.

Despite maintaining a strong concordance with their previous two LPs, it is evident that Camera Obscura have by no means flatlined. Desire Lines marks a subtle phasing out of the orchestral horns and symphonic strings that laced My Maudlin Career, with such instrumentation only substantially resurfacing in the 30-second ‘Intro’ and ‘I Missed Your Party’. Invariably, each track swells with infectious, melancholic hooks, lodged like a lump in the throat between the gentle folds of Belle & Sebastian-like acoustic guitar. Amidst this haze of swirling, lovelorn melodies (see ‘Fifth In Line To The Throne’ and the album’s title track), the festive uplift of ‘French Navy’ makes less of an appearance, sifting only through the saccharine refrains of ‘Do It Again’ and ‘Break It To You Gently’, two of the most satisfying pop tracks of the year.

Tracyanne Campbell’s voice is a musical instrument in its own right; one whose wistful timbre caramelises the most melancholic of lyrical themes.

It is almost impossible to locate a single weak link or cutting edge in Camera Obscura’s latest album full-length. True, the most adventurous Desire Lines gets is in a coalescence of choir pads and calypso inflections in ‘Every Weekday’, and several fine-spun allusions to indie sophisticates Vampire Weekend, which simmer down in the verses of the very same song into pure twee-pop indulgence. The record can neither be accused of inconsistency, nor praised for innovation, something that the band is very much aware of, registered in the admirably candid lyrics: “we might not storm the charts completely / but we’ll do our very best”. Faithful to their word, this is Camera Obscura at their best, and it is certainly beyond me to think of an album more apt for the post-exam wind down: a record so deeply and immediately gratifying that warm and fuzzy sensations are bound to ensue.

Similar To: Wilco, Belle & Sebastian

MP3: ‘Every Weekday’, ‘Cri du Coeur’, ‘Break It To You Gently’