Camera Obscura - Underachievers Please Try Harder
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CD Details
Artist: Camera ObscuraEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2004-01-20
Music Label: Merge Records
Soundtracks:
- Suspended from Class
- Keep It Clean
- A Sisters Social Agony
- Teenager
- Before You Cry
- Your Picture
- Number One Son
- Let Me Go Home
- Books Written for Girls
- Knee Deep at the NPL
- Lunar Sea
- I Don't Want to See You
- Footloose and Fancy Free
- Teenager (Mpeg Video)
Music reviews of Underachievers Please Try Harder
Music Review: Music to drink chocolate milk to...
Rating: 2 Stars
I'm not a macho guy. I prefer tennis to pit bull fights, and I'm learning how to cook. I may even start a diary one day. In other words, I'm fairly sensitive and some might even call me a wimp. But despite that disclaimer, this album is just too fey and cute even for me. From the self-conscious cover (She's made paper glasses for her teddy bear! They're replicas of the same bi-focals she's wearing! They've brought berets and a camera from the 60's to the photo shoot! Awww...) to songs about the National Pop League (good heavens you must be joking,) everything about this record seems contrived and misguided, wallowing in the kind of presumed innocence of the teenage kingdom that's always struck me as being more than a little rose colored. I'm positively shocked that they didn't start singing in French at one point or another. The lyrics are poor to say the least (they would have been well served not to include them for posterity on a printed insert,) and I've actually taken to wondering how I ever liked music that got this recommended to me in the first place. Do I need to seek therapy for a Peter Pan syndrome? Should I start listening to nothing but Norwegian black metal? They complain about their social circle on the expected jangly acoustic numbers and they complain some more on the unexpected 1950's girl group reverb drenched doo wop numbers, and they manage to convey the futile minor pains of their existences in several different genres, but they never manage to convey much joy. As a matter of fact after penning the chorus "I should be suspended from class/I don't know my elbow from my arse," several songs later they're singing "You're not a teenager/So don't act like one." What's that cliche about people who live in glass houses? I also noticed another reviewer mention (as praise) that these are some of the best songs Petula Clark never wrote. Well, how many Petula Clark albums do you own? If your answer is "all of them," then perhaps you'd find this interesting. Really, there's not much original here at all. Camera's "Let Me Go Home" is way too similar to "Boy With the Arab Strap" to be a mere coincidence and it's actually a high point when they try to steal Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" and rewrite it as "Your Picture," presumably with a straight face. At least this provides a brief respite of comic relief.
I would tell you to please buy a Belle and Sebastian (they have a working relationship with Camera but Stuart did NOT produce this album as others have claimed,) Magnetic Fields, Aislers Set, or even a Blossom Dearie or Chad and Jeremy record before this one, but I have a feeling that if you're looking at this band then you're already familiar with those artists and, like me, are searching for new and fresh music. Well, when we find ourselves on this page, I'm afraid we've searched too far.
Description of Underachievers Please Try Harder
Camera Obscura create lilting, sophisticated melodies that draw similarities to Belle & Sebastian, The Clientele, or Trembling Blue Stars, but are also rooted in more classic sounds such as Nick Drake, Donovan, or Petula Clark. Songs drift and linger like clouds in a summer sky, with gentle hooks and breezy vocals. This is their 2004 release, lovingly remastered and presented on HQ 180 gram vinyl with coupon for MP3 download of the entire album, and two bonus tracks from Merge's CD version of this classic.Alternative Rock CDs
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