Camera Obscura are also playing the Sydney Festival

It’s always the unassuming ones you should keep an eye out for – they’ll blow your mind and break your heart in an instant.

Such is the case with Camera Obscura, a group you’d expect to find in the library rather than defining your record collection or, for that matter, your summer. After wowing Australian audiences in 2006 as part of the Laneway Festival Camera Obscura pack their bags (vintage suitcases, natch) and head over to Australia for the second time on the back of their critically lauded fourth record, My Maudlin Career.

Hailing from Glasgow, Camera Obscura follow a rich pop tradition embedded within Scotland’s musical heritage. Like Belle and Sebastian and many others before them, Camera Obscura have a grasp on shattered hearts, literary lyricism and perfect embellishment that comes out as a lustrous display of indie pop’s finest.

Centered around the “Dusty meets Nancy” vocals of Traceyanne Campbell, Camera Obscura blend Motown, twee, maudlin sentimentality, orchestral indie and sixties girl group pop to build a sound that is wholly their own and an audience that is deservedly cult-like. Sonically lavish, on stage Camera Obscura present the most affecting pop performance you’ll find this side of the sixties and the most euphorically reflective pop you’ll find this January. Or maybe ever.