Camera Obscura

Camera Obscura inhabit a treasured place in the Scottish indie-pop canon. The band were formed in Glasgow in 1996 by Tracyanne Campbell, John Henderson, and Gavin Dunbar, with David Skirving eventually welcomed as a guitarist two years later following various lineup shuffles. That year saw the release of their first pair of singles—"Park and Ride" and "Your Sound"—with another lineup change (Lee Thomson joined as a drummer, Lindsay Boyd joined as a keyboard player, and David Skirving left was replaced by Kenny McKeeve) preceding the arrival of their debut full-length. Biggest Bluest Hi Fi came out in 2001 and was later re-released in 2002 after the band signed to Madrid's Elefant Records, and then in 2004 by Merge. Produced by Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian, the album drew support from John Peel and spawned a signature song in the lush orchestral pop of "Eighties Fan." Second LP Underachievers Please Try Harder came in 2003 and yielded two popular singles: "Teenager" and "Keep it Clean." By now, their reputation had spread outside of the UK, and they recorded Let's Get Out of This Country in Sweden with the producer Jari Haapalainen. The LP was arranged by Björn Yttling of Peter Bjorn and John while it was also significantly their third record to be released by American indie staple Merge Records, following the aforementioned re-issue of Biggest Bluest Hi Fi in 2004 and Underachievers Please Try Harder. Let's Get Out of This Country managed to graze the UK Album Charts at number 125 but their fourth album, My Maudlin Career (2009)—released on the band's prestigious new home of 4AD—went all the way to the UK top 40, landing at number 32. They stuck with 4AD for their fifth album Desire Lines (2013), which was notably their last LP recorded with keyboardist Carey Lander, who passed away on 11 October 2015 from bone cancer. Following Carey Lander's death, the band went on hiatus until 2019 when they resumed live duties to play the Belle & Sebastian-curated Boaty Weekender, which sailed from Barcelona to Cagliari on 8–12 August 2019. The following year, they confirmed that they were working on new music, which had been on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Camera Obscura returned in May 2024 with their sixth studio album Look to the East, Look to the West, which was released on Merge Records and produced again by Finnish-Swedish producer Jari Haapalainen. The album received universal acclaim from critics and peaked at number 36 on the UK Albums Chart and number four in Scotland.