Customer Reviews

Biggest Blue Hi-Fi

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I don't know much about this band, but the Rough Guides review is completely unfair.

I got some mp3s of this record and have been tracking down an actual copy. It's a perfectly enjoyable, jangly, little bauble that fits right in with other wonderful twee Glasgowian bands like Belle & Sebastian and (early) Del Amitri. At times, it can veer toward the precious and prententious, but for the most part it is a sweet pop record.

And I really like the singer's voice! Don't listen to that grump up there! It is untrained and far from virtuosic, but it has a dreamy, innocent quality that gently guides you through the songs.

I've listened more than a few times, and I have to say that I enjoy this record more than the last few B&S and Arab Strap records. Get it if you can!

Sweet melodic pop reminiscent of mellower Yo La Tengo tunes. "Shines Like a New Pin" really does shine as do the very catchy "Anti-Western" and the instrumental "Arrangements of Shapes and Space." The sweet and uncertain wallflowery voice of the female vocalist makes you want to be her friend.

The first two tracks of this album are simply great - very catchy, beautifully arranged, and contain great lyrics. Can't ask for much more than that - the rest of the album is solid as well, and a couple other songs come close to the level of the first two.

My only complaint is with the male vocals - not sure who in the band that is, but they ought to have him stick to playing instruments (luckily for the most part he does). Keep the singing to the woman - she has a very beautiful voice, and it should be highlighted not competed with.

Overall, a great album - worth checking out if you like soothing, fluffy pop.

This is a wonderful album, featuring some standout tracks (Eighties Fan, Anti-Western, Pen and Notebook, Happy New Year) and some memorable fillers that stick in your head mainly because of the sweet, lightly scottish-accented female vocals. Some of the horn and violin arrangements on the richer tracks are quite wonderful.

By no means an essential or groundbreaking record, but its great nonetheless.

A wonderful group that continues to delight me. How to describe....a scottish western group or maybe mazzy star if they had more than two good songs each the album. BEWARE there are 2 other groups with the same name.

Now this one is easy.
The sweet sounds of baby Glasgow - jingle-jangle.

Thankfully Camera Obscura don't wallow in the normal trough of miserablism like so many young groups from the inner-cities. It's been done to death, no-one needs angst and worthiness any more, what we need is 'Houseboat's aplenty and 'Pen and Notebook's by the score.

Airy and breezy is the order of the day with mad acoustic strumming, the naïve but always welcome teeming of strings and enticing, whispered vocals - just the blue-sky and cotton-wool clouds combination required for a Spring picnic by the river.

'Biggest, Bluest Hi-Fi' isn't a stereo-system playing a Derek and Clive cd - it's a sussy little album from folky-folks completely entrenched in and obsessed with Orange Juice, Strawberry Switchblade, Altered Images and the Bluebells.
Camera Obscura; Lindsay, Tracyanne (swoon and more swoon!) and some guys in touch with their feminine sides. Could you want more?

"Close comes the winter, summer is no longer.
And things, they seem much bleaker.
We'll see a Catherine Deneuve double-feature.
And our lives will fade as in darkness we will bathe.."

Brings a wee lump to your throat hen...

They're like the Cranberries, only happy. ;o) If you like Belle and Sebastien, you'll like mellowing out with Camera Obscura.

They have to be one of the most boring acoustic indie pop bands
i've come across. The only comparisons to belle and sebastian i see are the use of the same instruments and producer. The songs as a whole are monotonous. You can stop a song in the middle and play the next track starting from the middle, and you'd think it's the same song. At least change the melody/arrangement/dynamics of the vocals or sOMeTHIng. I'm sure they're talented; the quality is not bad; just boring.