We’ve heard they’re big in Spain. We don’t have any actual evidence for that, but we’ve heard it…
[Video][Website]
[6.50]
Hillary Brown: Oh, goody, more of the same! An unconventional sentiment, no doubt, but a heartfelt one. I’m a big fan of this vein Camera Obscura’s been working in (sparkly, 70s-Nashville-influenced/Phil Spectory songs), and I won’t complain about a lack of variation.
[7]
M. H. Lo: What about this is not PERFECT, I ask you? Obviously not that dramatic beginning, BOOM BOOM! Certainly not the way Tracyanne sings “criticized” twice in rapid succession, or her wry intonation on the euphoric line, “You make me go oooh-ooh-ooh…” Just when you think you’ve got those drums sussed, they break away and open up into a more relentless, pounding Motowny rhythm, which paves the way for the melody to correspondingly BURST FORTH into its gorgeous chorus (“I wanted to control it! But love I couldn’t hold it!”). Which leaves me just enough uppercase letters to exclaim about the HORNS, and the STRINGS, oh my god the STRINGS! She may be “waiting to be struck by lightning,” but I’m totally electrified.
[10]
Ian Mathers: Their last album was essentially 8 depressive ballads and 2 burnished, invincible pop songs (about being depressed, but still!). It was and is brilliant. “French Navy” has shockingly bad lyrics, none of the locked-in-a-room intensity or languor of Let’s Get Out of This Country‘s slow songs and certainly doesn’t have anything approaching the hooks or melodies of the title track and “Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken.” A major, major disappointment and one severe enough I’m worried that My Maudlin Career is going to be as crap as its title.
[5]
Martin Skidmore: The big beats are looking for that Spector “Be My Baby” sound, which does go some way to disguise the band’s fundamental nature. The drums and lively strings on this make it far more palatable than most of its ilk, but the singing isn’t strong enough to stand comparison to Ronnie Spector or Darlene Love, so it falls kind of flat for me.
[4]
Iain Mew: Classic swooning romanticism very much in the vein of “Lloyd” gets undercut by an ill-fitting string arrangement, a rubbish fadeout and the fact that it sounds like they ‘met by a trick of feet’. Survives barely intact.
[5]
Martin Kavka: If you’re the type of person who wants a love song with a gorgeous string line and not too many guitars, and that contains the words “dietary restriction” and eloquently describes the topsy-turviness and ephemerality of passion, this is for you. If you’re not that type of person…what’s wrong with you?
[9]
Additional Scores
Edward Okulicz: [8]
Hazel Robinson: [4]