Almost a decade ago, Camera Obscura keyboardist Carey Lander passed away from cancer, and the band went on an understandable hiatus that came to seem permanent. But the Glaswegian band’s sweet indie-pop couldn’t be kept down, reuniting & recruiting new keyboardist Donna Maciocia for fellow Scottish indie-popsters Belle & Sebastian’s Boaty Weekender cruise in 2019. After slowly working on a new record (we all know what happened in the year after 2019…), Camera Obscura are back in their sweet glory on Look to the East, Look to the West.
Even with the change in membership, Look is very much the Camera Obscura you fell in love to & with back when we all were younger. Singer/guitarist Tracyanne Campbell’s lovely nature is still front & center, whether giving a kiss-off to the patriarchy (“We’re Going to Make It in a Man’s World”) to their own version of twang-country easiness (“Big Love”, “Pop Goes Pop”). Look feels like the comfort being with an old friend that you hadn’t seen in years, but just slipped right back into the old ways with songs such as “Denon”.
The past is the past, and those we’ve lost won’t come back, but that doesn’t mean we must get lost in it, leave everything behind. It’s just so sweet to have the so sweet Camera Obscura back.
