Name: Look to the East, Look to the West
Brand: Camera Obscura

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: Yes

Catalogue number

MRG839CDRT

Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: Yes

Extended format

Extended format: Yes

Format detail

Includes Bonus CD containing 5 demos

Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2024-05-03

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

Total Cap

9999

CDx2 | Rough Trade Exclusive

MRG839LPC2

Violet

Opaque Violet

[r30581497]

Includes Bonus CD containing 5 demos.&nbsp;Housed in Gatefold Sleeve with Stock Inner.

1500

Merge

0673855083933

Violet LP | Rough Trade Exclusive

Bonus disc: No

MRG839LPC1

Light Blue

Indies Only Baby Blue and White Galaxy

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Housed in Gatefold Sleeve with Stock Inner.

0673855083902

Light Blue LP

MRG839LP

Black

Download code: Yes

Extended format: No

0673855083919

Black LP

MRG839CD

0673855083926

Artist

Camera Obscura

Genre US

Indie Pop / Shoegaze

Label US

Merge Records

Camera Obscura is a Scottish indie pop band that was formed in 1996 by Tracyanne Campbell, John Henderson, and Gavin Dunbar. Hailing from Glasgow, Scotland, the band has gained a dedicated following with their unique blend of catchy melodies and heartfelt lyrics.
With Tracyanne Campbell's distinctive vocals leading the way, Camera Obscura has released several critically acclaimed albums over the years. Their music captures a nostalgic sound reminiscent of classic indie pop while still maintaining a fresh and modern appeal.
Known for their infectious hooks and introspective songwriting, Camera Obscura has become a staple in the indie music scene. Their live performances are known for their energy and passion, captivating audiences around the world.

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Celebrate the best music of 2024 with our top 100 albums! Discover this year’s standout releases, with the top 20 featuring Rough Trade Exclusive editions and bonus content. From breakthrough artists to iconic favourites, get your must-have album today and add something special to your collection.

Albums of the Year 2024

Look to the East, Look to the West, the new album by Camera Obscura, is a revelation.

The Tracyanne Campbell-led outfit, reuniting with producer Jari Haapalainen (Let’s Get Out of This Country, My Maudlin Career), have crafted an album that simultaneously recalls why longtime fans have ferociously loved them for decades while also being their most sophisticated effort to date. It is also the most hard-fought album of Camera Obscura’s career. Following the 2015 passing of founding keyboardist and friend Carey Lander (to whom the penultimate track “Sugar Almond” is addressed), the band went into an extended hiatus. They remained in contact, but their status was uncertain until they announced their return, having been invited to perform as part of Belle &amp; Sebastian’s 2019 Boaty Weekender cruise festival, along with a pair of sold-out warm-up shows in Glasgow. Donna Maciocia (keys and vocals) joined founding members Kenny McKeeve (guitar and vocals), Gavin Dunbar (bass), and Lee Thomson (drums and percussion) for those shows and has since become a regular songwriting partner of Campbell’s.

Recorded in the same room where Queen wrote “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Look to the East, Look to the West feels big, a widescreen reframing of Camera Obscura’s sound that, paradoxically, saw the band go back to basics there are no string or brass arrangements, with more emphasis placed on piano, synthesizers, Hammond organ, and drum machines, and, perhaps most strikingly, the group have dropped the veil of reverb that characterized their previous albums. The tinges of country and soul that give Camera Obscura’s baroque take on pop music its bittersweet edge have never been more apparent guitars shimmer into the distance, keys haunt, and Campbell’s voice searches for the heart, reflecting on love, loss, and the passage of time. Lead single “Big Love” relishes in the space between country rock and prog, a pining break-up anthem featuring the soaring pedal steel of Tim Davidson. It’s a Nashville Sound heartbreaker, tackling the complexity of wanting to rekindle a bad relationship with Campbell’s uncanny ability to render the past: “It was a big love, she said / That’s why it took ten years to get her out of her head,” she begins. “We’re Going to Make It in a Man’s World” was co-written with Maciocia for filmmaker Margaret Salmon’s 2021 film Icarus (After Amelia). (Salmon, in turn, shot Look to the East, Look to the West’s cover photography featuring Fiona Morrison, who was on the cover of Camera Obscura’s debut, Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi.). Ironic and sincere, the two navigate the reality of being women in the music industry, somehow floating over Davidson’s pedal steel and Maciocia’s keys. “The Light Nights” is a swooning song propelled by a western shuffle and killer guitar, striking a balance between a particularly good honky-tonk joint’s jukebox and a lost gem of California pop music waiting to be discovered in a 7” bin. Look to the East, Look to the West is the sound of a band that has grown more confident in its sound and purpose than ever. It is Camera Obscura at their best and most evocative, an album that completely rearranges the listener’s emotional core, leaving them sad and exhilarated at the same time. Camera Obscura’s catalog is replete with songs people point to as life-changing, songs that will stick with them all their lives. Look to the East, Look to the West has 11 of them; take your pick.

Look to the East, Look to the West

Music US

Discover Look to the East, Look to the West by Camera Obscura. Their most sophisticated album yet, with 11 life-changing songs. Available in various formats from Merge Records.