Camera Obscura - Look to the East, Look to the West (IEX)

Look to the East, Look to the West is Camera Obscura at their best and most evocative. Reuniting with producer Jari Haapalainen (Let's Get Out of This Country, My Maudlin Career), Camera Obscura have crafted an album that simultaneously recalls why longtime fans have ferociously loved them for decades, while also being their most sophisticated effort to date. Lead single Big Love relishes in the space between country rock and prog, a pining break-up anthem featuring the soaring pedal steel of Tim Davidson. Were Going to Make It in a Mans World was co-written with Maciocia for filmmaker Margaret Salmons 2021 film Icarus (After Amelia). (Salmon, in turn, shot Look to the East, Look to the Wests cover photography featuring Fiona Morrison, who was on the cover of Camera Obscura's debut, Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi.). Ironic and sincere, the two navigate the reality of being women in the music industry, somehow floating over Davidsons pedal steel and Maciocias keys. Indie Exclusive Peak Vinyl is blue and white vinyl pressed galaxy effect, in a gatefold jacket with printed lyrics and a stock inner sleeve.