Camera Obscura (UK) Look To The East, Look To The West - Opaque Violet Vinyl US Vinyl LP
Sold Out – Sign Up for Back in Stock Email Alerts
CAMERA OBSCURA Look To The East, Look To The West (Rough Trade Exclusive 2024 US/EU limited edition 11-track LP pressed on Opaque Violet Vinyl. Camera Obscura return to Merge Records, reuniting with producer Jari Haapalainen for an album of sweeping heartbreakers. For fans who have loved them from the start and those experiencing their lush pop for the first time! Gatefold picture sleeve with hype sticker attached to the open shrink. Both sleeve and vinyl remain in Near Mint condition)
TRACKLISTING AND EXTRA INFORMATION
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 & 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.
Side A
1. Liberty Print
2. We’re Going to Make It in a Man’s World
3. Big Love
4. Only a Dream
5. The Light Nights
Side B
6. Sleepwalking
7. Baby Huey (Hard Times)
8. Denon
9. Pop Goes Pop
10. Sugar Almond
11. Look to the East, Look to the West
Artist - Camera Obscura (UK) (click link for complete listing)
Title - Look To The East, Look To The West (click link for more of the same title)
Year of Release - 2024
Format - vinyl LP album (LP record)
Record Label - Merge Records
Catalogue No - MRG839 (click link for more)
Country of Origin - United States (USA)
Language - Regardless of country of origin all tracks are sung in English, unless otherwise stated in our description.
Additional info - Picture Sleeve
Barcode - 0673855083933
Condition - This item is in Excellent condition or better (unless it says otherwise in the above description). We buy items as close to Mint condition as possible and many will be unplayed and as close to new as you could hope to find. Irrespective of the source, all of our collectables meet our strict grading and are 100% guaranteed. Click here for more info.
RareVinyl.com Ref No - CSULPLO842121
Related Artists - Belle & Sebastian, Cecile Aubry, Eska, God Help The Girl, Isobel Campbell, Looper, The Gentle Waves.
GENRES
Indie, NME Indie/Alternative Artists.
REFERENCE
Email - sales@rarevinyl.com to contact our sales team.
RareVinyl.com Reference Number - CSULPLO842121
SELL TO US
Got vinyl records, CDs or music memorabilia to sell? – Sell to us at our buying site https://vinyl-wanted.com
TRACKLISTING AND EXTRA INFORMATION
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 & 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.
Side A
1. Liberty Print
2. We’re Going to Make It in a Man’s World
3. Big Love
4. Only a Dream
5. The Light Nights
Side B
6. Sleepwalking
7. Baby Huey (Hard Times)
8. Denon
9. Pop Goes Pop
10. Sugar Almond
11. Look to the East, Look to the West
Artist - Camera Obscura (UK) (click link for complete listing)
Title - Look To The East, Look To The West (click link for more of the same title)
Year of Release - 2024
Format - vinyl LP album (LP record)
Record Label - Merge Records
Catalogue No - MRG839 (click link for more)
Country of Origin - United States (USA)
Language - Regardless of country of origin all tracks are sung in English, unless otherwise stated in our description.
Additional info - Picture Sleeve
Barcode - 0673855083933
Condition - This item is in Excellent condition or better (unless it says otherwise in the above description). We buy items as close to Mint condition as possible and many will be unplayed and as close to new as you could hope to find. Irrespective of the source, all of our collectables meet our strict grading and are 100% guaranteed. Click here for more info.
RareVinyl.com Ref No - CSULPLO842121
Related Artists - Belle & Sebastian, Cecile Aubry, Eska, God Help The Girl, Isobel Campbell, Looper, The Gentle Waves.
GENRES
Indie, NME Indie/Alternative Artists.
REFERENCE
Email - sales@rarevinyl.com to contact our sales team.
RareVinyl.com Reference Number - CSULPLO842121
SELL TO US
Got vinyl records, CDs or music memorabilia to sell? – Sell to us at our buying site https://vinyl-wanted.com