a sentimental education

My Maudlin Career, the newest one from Camera Obscura, comes off as a pretty optimistic album (especially for when the sheepdog moods hit) but don’t get hoodwinked by the songs’ bright personality and beguiling trajectories. My Maudlin Career echoes the retro paunchiness of the Scottish band's last, Let’s Get Out Of This Country (2006), in almost perfect symmetry, its bubblegum pop tunefulness washed over a heap of bleary-eyed sentimentalities. Yet even the saccharine sheen of the mascara-smeared balladry of “You Told A Lie” and “Other Towns And Cities” packs an acidic punch, not surprising when you consider how Tracyanne Campbell seems to write most of her songs from the perspective of one who got the fuzzy end of the lollipop in hamstrung relationships. Lead single “French Navy”, all tenterhooks, twee tongues and tall tales, may be the best single the band have cut since “Eighties Fan”. The title track isn’t that far behind in that regard: wistfulness, sarcasm and melodrama wrapped up in an enchantingly flushed arrangement, odd sonic elements (lugubrious organ melodies, fuzzy background guitars) of "My Maudlin Career" ushering in a girl-group meltdown in quite unsentimental terms, it must be said.