Camera Obscura
“Modern Girl”
[2006]
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Fresh on the rubber-sole heels of Belle and Sebastian’s peroxide-era Rod Stewart cover, Glaswegian peers Camera Obscura tackle 1980s pop diva Sheena Easton, herself a fellow Scot. Tracyanne Campbell and her group take an approach similar to the one used by B&S for "Baby Jane", replacing Thatcher-pressed synth-pep with languorous guitar, beer-buzzed organ, and Campbell’s casual, pensive vocals.

Lucky for Camera Obscura, "Modern Girl" holds up as the better of the two originals: It’s a well-crafted pop song about the way promiscuous boys have played women’s lib to their own selfish advantage, and the bittersweet loneliness that entails for the girls. "I don’t build my world ‘round no single man/ I am getting by doing what I can," Campbell half-laments. She already told us she felt like "getting confessional," and while there’s much more to the enchanting Let’s Get Out of This Country than emotional verisimilitude, "Modern Girl" also rings true. Now, about those pesky Stuart Murdoch comparisons…

Posted by Marc Hogan in indie pop on Thu: 07-13-06: 04:00 AM CDT |