Similar in concept to much of Zee Avi’s music, Camera Obscura‘s “French Navy” features a female lead singer and feels like it should be a very old song when in fact it’s brand new. However, where Ms. Avi has a jazzy acoustic/island-girl vibe from the 40′s, “French Navy” is more like a 60′s song. To be honest, I’m having quite a hard time describing it – it’s very hard to define. It’s upbeat, has a great hook, and some nice violin work.

Some might call it a girlie song, and it does have mass female appeal, but I think guys like it too. Strangely enough, I heard it playing in Home Depot lately! That was definitely a surprise.

The rest of Camera Obscura’s new album, My Maudlin Career, is pretty good, but this is the standout single for me.

The first two singles off the album are also the first two songs – the aforementioned Lisztomania and 1901. They kick it off well, setting the tone for the rest of the album. After that comes Fences, another great song that’s worthy of release as a single. In fact, basically every song on this album could find success as a single, in my opinion. Other noteworthy songs are Lasso, Rome, and Countdown. Basically, everything.

The only thing wrong with the album is that it’s very short, at a touch over 36 minutes. I feel that some of the songs could have, and should have, been stretched out and played with a bit. Maybe they’ll consider doing that during their live shows. In any case, given that “too short” is the only negative I could come up with, this is one spectacular album. I have a feeling it will take a very long time for me to get tired of it, if ever.

Even though 2009 is shaping up to be a great year in the indie music scene, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix gets my vote for Album of the Year so far.

Enough of my gushing. Go out and buy it!

Here’s a link to the video so you can hear the full song. I don’t think the video is that great, but the song is good enough to overcome that.