Dreaming Seamless Dreams

My Maudlin Career by Camera Obscura

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I first listened to My Maudlin Career on a bus heading towards the University of Washington; at the time, I was desperately trying to come out of a two year musical dry spell. The person I cared about most (at the time) was on a plane, flying out of my life, and suddenly Campbell was singing "You pull my heart out and then you run away/From Chicago to Cleveland you leave me pain" and my dry spell was over.

My Maudlin Career is a cleaner, slicker follow up to Let's Get Out of This Country, with the same compelling emotion, sentimentality, and enjoyable, awkward sweetness. Campbell's talent for writing so compellingly about heartache is once again a strong point for the album, with a recurring emotion of not being able to control how strongly she loves someone — in "French Navy" Campbell sings, "I wanted to control it/But love, I couldn't hold it", while in "Honey in the Sun" she elaborates, singing "I wish my heart was as cold as the morning dew/But it's as warm as saxophones/And honey in the sun for you". Though there is a wide variation in the setting for each song, the emotion is much more specific, narrating Campbell's many struggles to stay out of love. In "The Sweetest Thing", Campbell finds herself "going on a date tonight/To try to fall out of love with you/I know I know this is a crime/But I don't know what else to do".

Nearly every reason Let's Get Out of This Country deserves to be on a best albums of the decade list applies to My Maudlin Career. Aside from some refinement and growth, both albums stand as awkward, sentimental, witty and charming albums.

Shedding Tears for Affairs

Let's Get Out of This County by Camera Obscura

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I don't think that Tracyanne Campbell has ever had difficulty with being understood. When Campbell sings, "Lloyd I'm ready to be heartbroken/'cause I can't see further than my own nose at the moment" any girl anywhere can relate without even knowing Lloyd Cale or having ever been in love.

The immediate accessibility of Let's Get Out of This Country is truly enviable, as I've attempted talking about this album for three days straight and not a single word has been loyal to me. I've been listening to this album for a few years now, but for the majority of those years I brushed off the album as fun for the ears but fluff for the mind. It wasn't until My Maudlin Career, which I was forced to listen to due to the music dry spell I was experiencing, did I have my first brush with Campbell's awkwardly adorable lyrics.

The range of emotions in the album is stunning; these songs aren't just about heartbreak for the sake of heartbreak. The album starts out with "Lloyd I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken", in which she embraces falling in love, admitting that she is shortsighted and knowing that she will be left heartbroken. The title track "Let's Get Out of This Country" Campbell sings of her discontent in the city, attempting to convince her lover to take her out of the country. In "Come Back Margaret", Campbell sings to her rival, saying that "he wants to adore you" while she has to admit "Darling, you will always be around/Whether my mood's up or if it's down/In dreams I try to take you far away/But you never stay". "The False Contender" and "Dory Previn" both deal with falling out of love, in which Campbell admits "I once had a love, but soon had enough/He was a false contender" and "Sick of the sight of my old lover/Went under sheets and covers to get away from him", asking Dory Previn "Do you think it's time to put it out of my mind" before finally deciding "I think it's time I let my love for him die".

But if you don't feel like being heartbroken, Let's Get Out of This Country is truly just enjoyable to listen to. The songwriting and style has obviously hit its stride, and Camera Obscura isn't out to prove anything. As Campbell says herself in an interview, "I don't really want to turn into some band that tries to do something too off the wall. We're just doing what we can do, what touches us, and what seems right at the time."