Sparsely-arranged and wit-laden album Underachievers Please Try Harder should have been the making of Glasgow fivepiece Camera Obscura.

Released at a time when their sonic kin Belle and Sebastian were shedding fans with the filler-ridden Dear Catastrophe Waitress album, its charming melancholy constituted an appealing alternative.

That John Peel was an avowed fan (last year's exceptional I Love My Jean EP was conceived as a tribute to their patron) might have been expected to connect them with a sizeable, highly receptive audience.

And yet, in the last five years they have skipped around the country's bars (including a couple in the North West) without apparently increasing their fanbase.

In order to remedy this genuinely unacceptable situation, they have roped in talented Finnish producer Jari Haapalainen for their third album Let's Get out of this Country.

Well, he's certainly made a difference. Anyone who has noticed that lush lead single Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken bears more than a passing resemblance to Swedish popsters The Concretes may be interested to know that their work too bears Haapalainen's touch.

To Camera Obscura he brings flowing strings, a six-man' choir and a glossier finish. Self-conscious restraint has been replaced by go-get assuredness and classic pop influences pervade the record's ten tracks.

If Looks Could Kill in particular recalls The Ronettes and their girl group contemporaries.

The old' fans may need a little bit of getting used to it, but Tracyanne Campbell's characteristic cadences are unaltered; the quality of her songwriting undiminished; and the sharpness of her wordplay unblunted.

What Haapalainen has done is merely to repackage these fine attributes for a more mainstream listenership.

Released June 5, 2006.