Look to the East, Look to the West Camera Obscura SKU: 27.00 28.00 £27.00 - £28.00 £27.00 - £28.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Merge Records Released Date: 3rd May 2024 Buying Format: 1LP Coloured Vinyl Gatefold Sleeve 1LP Gatefold Sleeve Buying Options Choose an option1LP Coloured Vinyl Gatefold Sleeve1LP Gatefold SleeveClear Look to the East, Look to the West quantity Add to basket ReservePre Order Add to your Wishlist Description Product Info 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. Artist Camera Obscura Genre Rock And Pop Label Merge Records Buying Options 1LP Coloured Vinyl Gatefold Sleeve , 1LP Gatefold Sleeve Format 1LP , Coloured Vinyl , Gatefold Sleeve Condition New Country UK Track Listings Liberty Print We’re Going to Make It in a Man’s World Big Love Only a Dream The Light Nights Sleepwalking Baby Huey (Hard Times) Denon Pop Goes Pop Sugar Almond Look to the East, Look to the West Share this On Facebook On Twitter Via Email More from Camera Obscura and more from Rock And Pop View Product Quick View Camera Obscura Desire Lines Rock And Pop | 4AD | 1LP Released 30th August 2019 £19.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Camera Obscura Desire Lines £19.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: 4AD SKU: CAD3314 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 30th August 2019 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Camera Obscura My Maudlin Career Rock And Pop | 4AD | Miscellaneous Released 24th May 2019 £19.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Camera Obscura My Maudlin Career £19.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: 4AD SKU: CAD2907 Formats: Miscellaneous Released Date: 24th May 2019 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Steely Dan Pretzel Logic UHQR (45rpm 200g Clarity Vinyl) Rock And Pop | Analogue Productions | 200g, 2LP, 45rpm, Box Set Released 18th August 2023 £200.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Steely Dan Pretzel Logic UHQR (45rpm 200g Clarity Vinyl) £200.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Analogue Productions SKU: AUHQR 0011-45 Formats: 200g, 2LP, 45rpm, Box Set Released Date: 18th August 2023 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Beatles, The Please Please Me Rock And Pop | EMI | 180g, 1LP Released 8th November 2012 £25.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Beatles, The Please Please Me £25.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: EMI SKU: 3824161 Formats: 180g, 1LP Released Date: 8th November 2012 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Eagles, The Their Greatest Hits 71-75 Rock And Pop | Rhino | 180g, 1LP Released 14th August 2000 £29.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Eagles, The Their Greatest Hits 71-75 £29.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Rhino SKU: 7E1052 Formats: 180g, 1LP Released Date: 14th August 2000 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Ovlov Buds Rock And Pop | Exploding in Sound Records | 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released 13th May 2022 £25.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Ovlov Buds £25.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Exploding in Sound Records SKU: LPEIS110IEC Formats: 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: 13th May 2022 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View David Bowie David Live (3LP 2005 Mix) Rock And Pop | Parlophone | 3LP Released 11th November 2016 £48.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders David Bowie David Live (3LP 2005 Mix) £48.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Parlophone SKU: 190295990190 Formats: 3LP Released Date: 11th November 2016 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Olivia Dean Messy Rock And Pop | EMI | 1LP Released 30th June 2023 £26.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Olivia Dean Messy £26.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: EMI SKU: EMIV2093 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 30th June 2023 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Nearly New View Product Quick View Fiction Family Reunion Americana / Country | Rock Ridge Music | 1LP Released 24th August 2023 £10.00 Add to basket Reserve View Reservations Fiction Family Reunion £10.00 Genre: Americana / Country Label: Rock Ridge Music SKU: nn269890 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 24th August 2023 Reserve View Reservations Read More Add to basket View Product Quick View John Mouse The Death of John Mouse Rock And Pop | Crocfingers | CD Released 8th July 2014 £10.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders John Mouse The Death of John Mouse £10.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Crocfingers SKU: CROC013 Formats: CD Released Date: 8th July 2014 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Laura Gibson Goners Rock And Pop | City Slang | 1LP Released 26th October 2018 £22.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Laura Gibson Goners £22.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: City Slang SKU: SLANG50169LP Formats: 1LP Released Date: 26th October 2018 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Motorpsycho Salad Days vol. 2 Rock And Pop | Rune Grammofon | 5LP Released 7th October 2022 £83.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Motorpsycho Salad Days vol. 2 £83.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Rune Grammofon SKU: RALP325 Formats: 5LP Released Date: 7th October 2022 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders See more in Rock And Pop Start again
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