Camera Obscura
Underachievers Please Try Harder

THE REVIEW

I have always loved those B-movie action films full of stuntmen. I find the profession of a stuntman relatively thankless but at the same time very interesting.

The stuntman stands in for another actor, giving them the obviously illusory ability to do the same spectacular, incredible, astonishing things, like falling from the third floor without injury or things like that. Moreover, they are a stand-in, a double, they are the original only in another dimension, a virtual and exceptional one, and their role would become almost useless in cases where a script does not require things that the actor, the "real" one, is not willing to do.

Perhaps this is why I like Camera Obscura's "Underachievers Please Try Harder" so much. And if there is a pop script, rest assured that Camera Obscura will perform it perfectly.

But as stand-ins, since from the very first notes something risks sounding already heard and chewed. In fact, the Scottish sextet’s formula does not appear new, especially when they indulge in sugary somersaults that harken back to the '60s ("Number One Son") or when the rhythm gives way to "intimate fraternalism" (yes, they managed it!) of "A Sisters Social Agony" which starts with sisterly microphone words: "You bruise like a cherry my darling sweet girl...".

I'm afraid that, in the long run, getting bruises from performing acrobatics as stand-ins for Belle & Sebastian will not only be for sisters with broken hearts...

Four stars, one for each continuous and uninterrupted listening month I gave the album. Minus eleven though, as the months that have passed since the last listen of this work, followed by an acute hyperglycemic crisis.