“Camera Obscura sound like Camera Obscura”: Hamish Hawk on a Scottish masterpiece

Posted On October 13, 2024October 13, 2024

As music fans, it’s sometimes hard to discern what has more of an impact: the music itself or the memory it’s attached to. It’s no surprise that the majority of music fans see their fandom intensify during adolescence, a time when emotions and experiences are undoubtedly heightened. But that’s ultimately the essence of a great album: the power of its subjectivity to be emotionally received either lyrically or sonically and continue the journey of influence and evolution we see in art.

To some of you, the 2006 record Let’s Get Out of this Country by Camera Obscura may be somewhat of an unknown relic, but to Hamish Hawk, it was a turned-page corner in a chapter of adolescence that preceded a career that has seen him become one of the country’s most authentic songwriting voices.

In listing his nine favourite albums to Far Out, Hamish said, “This was another album that came out when I was a teenager, and I loved it then, and I love it now. I think music for a lot of people isn’t just about the album or the songs. It’s about who you were when you heard them. And for me, Camera Obscura reminds me of the late teenage years when I was starting to grow out of the kind of awkward teenage phase into a slightly, ever so slightly, more assured, and socially acceptable period”.

It’s a formative time for anyone, let alone a creative, and records sacred at that time of life are undeniably going to leave a fingerprint on you. But as an objective listener, what sets this record out from the rest? While Tracyanne Campbell’s vocals rain on top of dream-pop indie melodies that evoke a sort of anxious optimism, the band don’t fall into the trap of making that the focal point of the record.

Admittedly, she does provide the necessary amount of colour and shade throughout the record, but the band undoubtedly work as a cohesive whole, creating a succinct and complete record of ten tracks that give the individual components of a song the space it deserves. While the track opener ‘Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken’ platforms their melodic prowess both vocally and instrumentally, later tracks ‘Country Mile’ and ‘Razzle Dazzle Rose’ offer space and tenderness through brass instrumentation and delicate string parts, making the entire LP a record of balance.

When asked about the musicality of the album and what resonated with him, Hawk said: “Tracyanne Campbell is the lead singer, and not only is she one of my favourite voices in music, but she is one of my favourite Scottish voices. The album is just so, so pretty. It’s reminiscent of quite classic ’60s pop or even French pop. It is a classic-sounding album. It’s one of those that sounds older than it is. But it never veers too far into nostalgia or pastiche. It’s very much its own thing. And they were true to themselves. Camera Obscura sound like Camera Obscura.”

For an artist to sound like themselves and offer, authenticity is perhaps the only remit for consideration when labelling something as timeless. Adolescence and subjectivity aside, Let’s Get Out of this Country by Camera Obscura is an important milestone in the evolution of Scottish music. While to Hamish, the record is reminiscent of “60s pop or even French pop”, there’s a case to be made that he himself sits alongside Camera Obscura as part of a healthy Scottish musical alumni who will one day be similarly as sound defining community.

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