Camera Obscura, London The Lexington

Camera Obscura

March 16th, 2009

Camera Obscura are oh-so-apologetic tonight. They’re sorry that they’re going to play us a lot of brand new songs and they’re sorry that, after ten years of doing this, they still can’t tune their guitars quickly enough.

Frontwoman Traceyanne Campbell leads the band through a number of songs from their forthcoming fourth record, My Maudlin Career, to be released on 4AD in April. Single ‘French Navy’ goes down a storm and old favourite ‘Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken’ is received in much the same way – everybody’s happy.

I’m surprised at how delicate a sound is created even when there are more than half a dozen people on the stage. It stays this way until the encore, when a piercing trumpet breaks through the wall of sound made by multiple guitars and percussion. I almost managed to avoid the obligatory Belle & Sebastian mention (oops – almost) but Camera Obscura seem to have outgrown that tag; they aren’t as twee and have that ’60s feel with the ‘Be My Baby’ drums and cutesy keys.

Their latest album is one of the most hotly-anticipated of 2009 and could be the big breaker for Camera Obscura.

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