Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

Local stalwarts Camera Obscura’s latest album title will likely elicit obvious jokes from detractors, especially with an opening line like “spend a week in a dusty library, waiting for some words to jump in me". Not looking to win new fans, although being signed to 4AD could make this a happy by-product, My Maudlin Career finds the wistful sextet in similar, albeit slightly darker territory. Relationships end, affairs fizzle out and a boy called James is ominously knocking at the door of singer Tracyanne Campbell. Her various emotional bruises are well documented here, laid out starkly and with minimal literary frills. The rest of the Cameras hold forte when needed, such as on the bittersweet Hawaiian-tinged send off, Honey in the Sun. They also bow out accordingly on Other Towns and Cities, letting Campbell unweave the tangled ends of yet another doomed relationship. Give Camera Obscura your love - it sounds like they need it. [Darren Carle]