Underachievers Please Try Harder

It’s difficult to pin down the perspective Tracyanne Campbell, lead songwriter of Camera Obscura, writes from in the her band's sophomore album Underachievers Please Try Harder. Scott Plagenhoef of Pitchfork calls this album an “adult approach to heartbreak,” yet Tracyanne sings with a childlike innocence over sad instrumentals that do not sound mature at all. Like the band's previous album Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi, this album builds upon the twee influences of Belle and Sebastian and other indie acts in Scotland. Instrumentation is often simple: “A Sister’s Social Agony” consists of only guitar, drums, bass, and the occasional “oo” contributed by the other members. It gets even sparser on “Your Picture,” one of my personal favorites, which features only fingerpicked acoustic guitar and a soft piano that accompanies it near the end. Despite this lack of complexity, each song is full of emotion.

I feel like the “oo’s” are what define this album. While Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi sounded thin compared to other albums from the twee genre, like Tigermilk with its reverb and horns filled sound, these background vocal melodies softly fill the space between guitar and jazz-inflected drums. Camera Obscura would later expand on this idea, using extensive string arrangements on the following album Let’s Get Out of This Country and mainly using backing vocals for effect, like on the bridge of “If Looks Could Kill.”

The album's title itself serves as playful commentary on the band’s position in Glasgow’s early-2000s indie scene. Overshadowed by giants like Belle and Sebastian and Teenage Fanclub, it was difficult for them to carve out their own sound. Other contemporaries such as Franz Ferdinand and Snow Patrol drew from indie rock and Britpop to forge new sounds distinct from the signature style Stuart Murdoch had established at Stow College. Underachievers Please Try Harder serves as an honest reflection on the sound they were brought up with and would help them create their most unique work in the following years.