A friend remembered
Dry eyes are not an option while listening to Camera Obscura’s first album since the death of their bandmate Carey Lander, writes Fiona Shepherd
POP
Camera Obscura: Look to the East, Look to the West
Merge Records
✪✪✪✪
Kelly Jones: Inevitable Incredible
Stylus Records
✪✪
Afterlands: We Are the Animals in the Night
Lost Map ✪✪✪✪
Glasgow indie favourites Camera Obscura return after a decadelong hiatus following the death of their cherished bandmate Carey Lander with an album so soft, soothing yet nostalgic that you can almost feel the weight lifting from their shoulders as they work out grief, regret and confusion.
Look to the East, Look to the West eschews their usual leavening string and brass arrangements to explore a different palette using the keyboards, organ, even syndrums brought by band members Kenny Mckeeve, Gavin Dunbar, Lee Thomson, new recruit Donna Maciocia and singer/songwriter Tracyanne Campbell. Her comforting voice sounds light over whispering syndrums on opening track Liberty Print as she looks back on old encounters with an easy poetry.
The gentle mantra We’re Going to Make It In a Man’s World hits the sweet spot between retro country, indie folk and girl group pop, while delicious organ licks add to the old school country vibes of Big Love. The band have a ball on the carefree Pop Goes Pop and even the title of The Light Nights is cheering and reassuring.
Inevitably though, the album is shot through with sadness, whether the tender piano line and sobbing slide guitar which open Only a Dream or the bittersweet lyrics of Denon, about struggling through. The self-help-style affirmation “don’t live with regret cos you only get one life” could ring hollow but Campbell has an integrity of expression which is at its most devastating on Sugar Almond. This is a straight-up song for Lander, with nothing to stand in the way of Campbell’s candid sentiments. “I have to say what comes to mind… you made me kind” she attests with utmost delicacy, bringing the tribute home with a final beat before she utters the name Carey. Dry eyes not an option.
Stereophonics frontman Kelly Jones has been busy with the side-projects of late, following up the debut album by his Americana trio Far From Saints with a new solo album, written entirely on piano. Inevitable Incredible lives up to neither part of its title, ranging instead from the brooding title track via gentle protest prayer May I Come Home From My War to the country-tinged The Beast Will Be What The Beast Will Be, while recent single Echowrecked is a pop devotional wreathed with guitar, strings and percussion, which settles into middle of the road territory.
Afterlands is a lockdown-birthed collaboration between Phantom Band frontman Rick Anthony (aka Rick Redbeard) and David Mcaulay from Strike the Colours, who initially came together to work on a film soundtrack, before working their ideas into atmospheric debut, We Are the Animals in the Night.
Anthony has always possessed a stately soul quality in his voice – on opening track Bones of the Earth, it is backed by a solemn drone to create a simple hymnal appeal. Arrangements are carefully calibrated throughout, with a number of guests providing texture. Rolling Waves is a bare bones ballad with Pete Harvey mesmeric on cello. Admiral Fallow’s Kev Brolly adds lithe clarinet to the limpid chords and resonant tones of Whale Song, one of two tracks with guest vocals from Jill Lorean, whose sweetest country tones also intertwine with Anthony on Ghosthouse.
Anthony’s storytelling comes to the fore on Geese Flying In Broken Patterns, embellished by intuitive drumming from Chvrches’ Johnny Scott. Like Camera Obscura, the mood is mellow but the sentiments cut through.
Inevitable Incredible lives up to neither part of its title