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 my maudlin thoughts

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graeme
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graeme


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my maudlin thoughts Empty
PostSubject: my maudlin thoughts   my maudlin thoughts EmptySun Apr 26, 2009 10:58 am

this is the thread to talk bout the album
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bossanovacowboy

bossanovacowboy


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Location : The Wild West

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PostSubject: Re: my maudlin thoughts   my maudlin thoughts EmptyMon Apr 27, 2009 6:03 pm

Maybe I should post a 'proper' review when I have some more time.

But for now I think it sits very well alongside Let's Get Out Of this Country. James is probably the best track - but not in the Country Mile, Razzle Dazzle Rose league.

I still think that Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi has their best songs on though (Houseboat, Swimming Pool, Anti-Western, Pen & Notebook).

I know they seem ancient now, but it would be great to hear these live now and again
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graeme
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graeme


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PostSubject: Re: my maudlin thoughts   my maudlin thoughts EmptyMon Apr 27, 2009 6:43 pm

its all down to personal preferance obviously,but i think this album is as strong as the last 3(not countin rare-bird)its one of them that after 10 plays your well and trulyy hooked,i will write a full review later but for now,i`ll use someone elses"wordy"breakdown of the album,but quickly for me,it starts with a song that sounds like it could have belonged on the last album,dips slightly,then just builds and builds...its lavish to the extreme...but my intention is to later,listen to it...then put me thoughts down,but for now.....


Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
by Gideon Brody



Artist: Camera Obscura
Release date: 20 April 2009
Label: 4AD


My Maudlin Career begins in a decidedly non-maudlin fashion. French Navy’s upbeat Phil Spector-esque echoey snares and strings accompany Tracyanne Campbell’s excited introduction: “Spent a week in a dusty library / waiting for some words to jump in me / we met by a trick of fate / French navy my sailor mate.” Like a hormonally-charged student trying but failing to concentrate on a dissertation, so the new love in Campbell’s life is undermining her attempts to put pen to paper. However, she needn’t have worried: her beau acts as the inspiration for a number of songs on the album – an album purely and simply about love.

It is no wonder that Campbell and her Camera Obscura bandmates feel so comfortable with the context of love, or more precisely, a child-like, innocent love. Campbell’s soft Glaswegian accent and delicate, nasal tones suit the fragility and naïveté of a he-loves-me-he-loves-me-not sentimentality. Her witty interjections straight from the mouth of Juno MacGuff, help the subject matter from cloying the listener with sentiment and carry the songs along with a winsome breeze. Rather than rejecting the record for its mawkishness, its wide-eyed genuineness and gentle affection draws you in. Campbell’s stories and confessions convey with such truthfulness, it’s as though the listener were privy to the pages of a teenager’s diary.

Camera Obscura’s quiet, acoustic brilliance – the kind you’d associate with Kings Of Convenience – occasionally gives way to a bigger sound. Like the blooming confidence of someone accepted by the opposite sex, My Maudlin Career is a happier record than previous efforts and more content with itself and with the world. The Sweetest Thing and You Told A Lie’s summery tales of newfound love are illustrations of Camera Obscura’s newly found happiness. That isn’t to say the album doesn’t carry more reflective moments. Insecurity, doubt, regret and loneliness also have time to creep in. Away With Murder’s bluegrassy lamentation, punctuated by an eerie organ melody, is a perfect example of Camera Obscura’s masterly understanding of melancholy – a quality Mazzy Star had in abundance. However, Swans’ tambourines, glockenspiels and uplifting riffs quickly remind you that someone is in love around here!

The heart-crushingly beautiful James – a tale of rejection and dying love – captures the subtle, bittersweet magic of Velvet Underground’s Sunday Morning. Careless Love – with its disarming crescendo of strings – unfolds its layers and leaves them at the mercy of the wind as Campbell looks to close one relationship so a new one can begin: “I’ve been really struggling / to think of you and I being friends / I blow hot and cold / yeah I’m like a yo-yo / so I don’t think I should see you again.” The album’s tender, heartfelt ballads match those of Band Of Horses.

Camera Obscura perfect their homage to the Ronettes – and Spector in general – with title track, My Maudlin Career. A reverb-strewn piano riff pitter-patters along as bass saxophones provide the jazzy sleaze accompaniment to Campbell’s, typically coy, cuteness: “You kissed me on the forehead / now his kisses give me concussion.” Frustration soon works its way in, “I promise not to burden you / please let me go” and then defiance: “This maudlin career has come to an end / I don’t want to be sad again.” Fighting the temptation to wallow, Campbell’s lyrics are reflective not only of her previously depressing love life but of the band’s struggle to broaden their musical horizons and move out of their maudlin rut.

Capable of renewing anyone’s belief in love, Forest And Sands is yet another highlight. Combining the child-like wonderment of Wall-E with the quiet melancholy of a Pet Sounds-era Brian Wilson, Campbell sounds utterly convincing when she sings “it feels like none of this is real.” As the album bows out with Honey In The Sun’s merry jig, you can picture the big, happy loved-up smile on Tracyanne Campbell’s face.

Occasionally shrouded in sadness but with happiness always beating from its core, My Maudlin Career lays bare the sweet melancholy of love.
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Linz




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Join date : 2009-04-28

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PostSubject: Re: my maudlin thoughts   my maudlin thoughts EmptyTue Apr 28, 2009 5:11 pm

Its great - and a grower - fav tracks - French Navy, The Sweetest Thing, Honey in the Sun & World is full of Strangers
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