Camera Obscura Look to the East, Look to the West LP

Camera Obscura's first album in more than 10 years, Look to the East, Look to the West is the sound of a band that has grown more confident in its sound and purpose than ever. It is Camera Obscura at their best and most evocative, an album that completely rearranges the listener's emotional core, leaving them sad and exhilarated at the same time. The Tracyanne Campbell–led outfit, reuniting with producer Jari Haapalainen (Let's Get Out of This Country, My Maudlin Career), 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.

Look to the East, Look to the West, is both a fitting tribute to what the band once was and a powerful new beginning. The group have retained the vital DNA that made them so special - Campbell's surgically precise lyrics and honeysweet vocals, the band's near telepathic interplay, and their unerring way with a melody - while adding new elements like subtle electronic pulses, pedal steel-infused country-rock, and full-on piano ballads.