Today, the legendary Scottish indie-pop band Camera Obscura releases the new single “Liberty Print” from their first new album in over ten years, Look to the East, Look to the West, out May 3rd on Merge Records. The group, led by guitarist and vocalist Tracyanne Campbell, have reunited with Jari Haapalainen, producer of the band’s 2006 album Let’s Get Out of This Country and 2009’s My Maudlin Career, and crafted an album that simultaneously recalls why longtime fans have ferociously loved them for decades while also being their most sophisticated effort to date.
The opening track to the album, “Liberty Print” shows off Camera Obscura’s uncanny dexterity in juxtaposing genres, moods, and emotions. Written about Campbell’s brother who died tragically at the age of 34, the track is an elegy that breaks itself open over a crushing synth line. A daringly constructed song, “Liberty Print” showcases Campbell’s command of lyrical narrative that allows space for grief within the structure of pop music. “I like ‘Liberty Print’ because I think it’s the song that sounds most unlike anything we’ve done before,” Campbell explains. “It introduces a new direction. It sounds fresh and exciting, and it introduces Donna [Maciocia] on keys in a big way. It was important to us that if we were to have a new player, that she be allowed to make her own creative stamp on the songs.”
Listen to Camera Obscura’s “Liberty Print”
Look to the East, Look to the West was the most hard-fought album of Camera Obscura’s career. Following the 2015 passing of founding keyboardist and friend Carey Lander, 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. 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.
Pre-order Look to the East, Look to the West
Watch Camera Obscura’s “Big Love” Video
Listen to Camera Obscura’s “We’re Going to Make It in a Man’s World”
Camera Obscura Tour Dates:
Thu. May 2 – Hebden Bridge, UK @ The Trades Club
Sat. May 4 – Leeds, UK @ Stylus
Mon. May 6 – Manchester, UK @ Academy 2
Tue. May 7 – London, UK @ Koko
Thu. May 9 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2
Fri. May 10 – Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy 2
Sat. May 11 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom
Wed. May 29 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Thu. May 30 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
Fri. May 31 – Montreal, QC @ Theatre Fairmont
Sat. Jun. 1 – Toronto, ON @ The Concert Hall
Mon. Jun. 3 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Tue. Jun. 4 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
Fri. Jun. 7 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile
Sat. Jun. 8 – Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall
Mon. Jun. 10 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
Tue. Jun. 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
Wed. Jun. 12 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
Fri. Jun. 14 – Dallas, TX @ Studio at the Factory
Sat. Jun. 15 – Austin, TX @ Scoot Inn
Mon. Jun. 17 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety
Tue. Jun. 18 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
Wed. Jun. 19 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Thu. Jun. 20 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
Sat. Jun. 22 – Mon. Jun. 24 – Mexico City, MX @ Foro Indie Rocks!
Fri. Aug. 2 – Sat. Aug. 3 – Glasgow, UK @ The Glasgow Weekender
Thu. Aug. 29 – Sun. Sept. 1 – Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival
Fri. Aug. 30 – Cardiff, UK @ Tramshed
Keep your mind open.
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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]
