Camera Obscura’s “French Navy” and Wye Oak’s “Take It In” were two of my favorite songs from last year, similar in subject matter but wildly different in every other respect.
“Take It In” would play as a break-up song even if it were an instrumental — icy detachment broken apart periodically by chaotic cymbal crashes and power chords. It mirrors the last days of a failing relationship: aggressive indifference that gives spark to wild-fire fights. It’s the perfect backdrop for Jenn Wasner’s weary voice, and what she says with it: “I turn to smoke when you need air/I’m sorry, baby, I don’t care.” There’s not enough left to even fight about anymore. By the end, though, Wasner seems to have half-convinced herself to give up on giving up: “I take it back, I’ll take it in/’Til I never need air again.” Or maybe she’s just given up entirely. Either way, “Take It In” is a haunting stunner, more a novella than a song.
There is a broken heart at the center of “French Navy,” too, but good luck finding it amid the song’s sunny disposition. It’s an over-saturated snapshot: bright and colorful, all swirling strings, jingle-jangle guitars, and horn-section punch. The sort of thing meant to back a (500) Days of Summer-style young-lovers-in-young-love montage — not serve as a tombstone for that young love gone awry. Not that singer Tracyanne Campbell (who has a voice like a Scottish Neko Case) is all that broken up about the break up: “We met by a trick of fate,” she shrugs. More sailors in the sea, I suppose.
Obviously, I would love to hear both of those songs live. But as I have yet — yet! — to master the time-space continuum and I’m currently driving a rented Dodge without much in the way of high-end acceleration, I suppose I have to choose. Camera Obscura is booked at Hailey’s in Denton on Saturday, while Wye Oak is opening for Shearwater at The Loft in Dallas.
There is not really a wrong choice. Personally, if forced, I’d probably pick Wye Oak, because of who they’re paired with. Shearwater just released a fantastic research project of a record, The Golden Archipelago, which features Jonathan Meiburg’s wonderfully idiosyncratic nature-themed songs delivered in his wonderfully idiosyncratic voice (both are an acquired taste I suggest you acquire). Also: their drummer looks exactly like former professional wrestler Lex Luger. File under: added bonus.
