Camera Obscura: "French Navy"

Camera Obscura’s records are good, but the singles collection in my dreams is better. My capitol city friend Calum writes the Glow general consensus, roughly, that My Maudlin Career is patchy. But he’s writing an album review, and this, I would argue, is the wrong way to tackle this band.

Implicit in the pop experience, indebted more to the 45 than the concept LP, is a focus on song rather than album. The band’s track-by-track influence peddling, among other things, attests to this tendency. In the album-oriented discourse of music criticism this sounds like censure, but far from it; placing new single “French Navy” beside previous high water marks like “Razzle Dazzle Rose” and “Number One Son” only proves how the band has quietly been building one of the most dazzling and consistent catalogues of the past decade. And if in presenting a handful of also-rans with each cadre of classics is the price we must pay for pop music this good, so be it.

Staccato chords—instantly clamouring to be resolved into a steady beat—announce that the energy level here will be high. Tracyanne Campbell’s molasses coo emerges alone in the space between, so slow and deep-rooted it needs no accompaniment. Not content to rest this single strength, however, “French Navy” builds to a triumph of harmonies, strings, and snare drum, never letting up until the fade-out. As big as the kitchen-sink production is, the song is even bigger, and Campbell towers over it all.

Perhaps not for the hard of heart, “French Navy” attests to Camera Obscura’s unwavering dedication to pop’s fundamentals. The elusive perfection of Campbell’s melodic lines tempers her sad heart; you barely notice that the refrain regrets, “I wanted to control it / But love, I couldn’t hold it.” Perhaps it’s this contrast that makes a band constantly charged with retreading ground so endlessly interesting.