Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi (25th Anniversary Edition)
Availability: In stock and shipping now.
Availability: Hurry, only one copy in stock!
Availability: Not in stock or no longer available
Availability: Not in stock but we can order it in. We aim to ship in 3-5 days.
On May 8, 2026, Camera Obscura will celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut album, Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi, with a vinyl reissue via Merge Records. Out-of-print on the format since its initial UK release on Andmoresound in 2001, the 25th anniversary edition is the most definitive version of of Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi ever pressed to vinyl, featuring both “Eighties Fan” B-sides — “Shine Like a New Pin” and “Let’s Go Bowling” — which were later added to expanded CD reissues of the album.
The album is a remarkably-assured opening statement, a fully realized expression of a sound that has enthralled listeners from their first spin of the Stuart Murdoch (Belle & Sebastian) produced “Eighties Fan” to their last listen of the band’s 2024 return to the studio Look to the East, Look to the West.
Those fans have clamoured for Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi to receive the vinyl reissue it has long deserved. Setting the needle down on tracks like “Swimming Pool,” “Pen and Notebook,” and “Happy New Year,” it’s easy to hear why: each of the album’s 12 songs are perfectly-observed slices of life rendered cinematic through opulently-detailed arrangements. It’s eternal, bedrock pop music as only Camera Obscura could make it, suitable for the hi-fis of 1966 and 2026 alike.
Released: May 2026
Cat: MRG256LP
Label: Merge Records
Listen
Tracklist
SIDE A
1. Happy New Year
2. Eighties Fan
3. Houseboat
4. Shine Like a New Pin
5. Pen and Notebook
6. Swimming Pool
SIDE B
7. Anti-Western
8. Let’s Go Bowling
9. I Don’t Do Crowds
10. The Sun on His Back
11. Double Feature
12. Arrangements of Shapes and Space