Underachievers Please Try Harder (2003)

I hear a touch of Young Marble Giants in the way Camera Obscura strips back the sound so far, and I imagine close study of the words would likely affirm sharp-elbowed ironies of the young and pretty that now glide so dreamily across its glistening surfaces. But honestly, it's the Fleetwoods I keep hearing in this lovely mess first. Two female singers mixing it up with two male singers (one more than the Fleetwoods had), it's all trembling, whisper-soft vocals occupying wide, wide open spaces, pastels of pure yearning, and plain-spoken singing that falls together into sumptuous harmonies. This is their second album but I went for it first because of the title—and a moment, please, for the pleasure of it, the delicious, delirious wordiness, the sheer droll cheek. It was their Lloyd Cole name-checking in the 2006 instant classic, "Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken" that made me aware of Camera Obscura in the first place. "Teenager" was the first song on Underachievers that jumped out at me (before I even knew what it was called), an ominous cloud-covered brooder with shivery, spidery guitar pushing it along, gorgeous swooping background vocals, and an aching melody (listen). It's just beautiful. Then I noticed the name of the first song, "Suspended From Class" (rhymes with "don't know my elbow from my ass"), a warm ushering equally candy confection—since when did a cornet ever get so effective?—and I guess that's where I started catching on to the game. There's some country and Leonard Cohen and Brazilian pop gestures in here too, but it's arguable that approximately everything proceeds out of the primal singularity of "Jesus" by the Velvet Underground—do they really mean it or don't they? are they really callow or aren't they? This is tricky, heady territory, the plaintive tone of sincerity unto the death, and they don't always pull it off, but the songs are usually interesting at least. After some poking around on the Internet, I see that Camera Obscura is connected to Belle & Sebastian in a few ways, so throw them on the pile too. I have meant for ages to make a project of getting to know Belle & Sebastian better and perhaps this will be my prompt to do so, and the rest of the Camera Obscura catalog more closely too. The high points do seem to come at a pretty good clip here.