MERGE RECORDS
Camera Obscura - Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi Camera Obscura
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.
Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi first reached Stateside in 2004, after the success of Camera Obscura’s 2003 Merge debut Underachievers Please Try Harder. New fans who weren’t keyed in to the UK import market or to what John Peel was spinning on his BBC Radio programs would be forgiven for mistaking Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi as a follow-up to their breakthrough album as opposed to their first. The album is a remarkably-assured opening statement, a fully realized expres- sion 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 clamored 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.
Track List
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
Pickup currently unavailable at Cambridge
Product information
Shipping
We aim to keep postage costs as low as possible while making sure your records arrive safely. All orders are packed securely using Defenda MusicMax stiff cardboard mailers, with plenty of “FRAGILE” tape, to provide the best protection in transit.
Shipping costs are calculated automatically at checkout based on the weight and destination of your order, along with packaging materials.
We send most orders via Royal Mail tracked services. For larger or heavier orders, we may use a courier service or split your order into multiple parcels to ensure it arrives safely and efficiently.
Pre-orders
Any items ordered alongside a pre-order item will be held back and posted alongside your pre-order. If you’d like them sent individually, please make separate orders.
On the subject of pre-orders, please note than release dates can change (sometimes not until the scheduled release date). Please keep an eye on our website
Returns
Returns Procedure
If you wish to cancel or return an order, you need to notify us by email (quoting your order number), and wait for us to get back to you before returning goods.
We will email you with instructions and a returns reference number. When returning items to us, you will need to take reasonable care to ensure they are not damaged in transit and that they are labelled clearly with the correct address & reference number (as provided by us) :
Relevant Record Café,
260 Mill Road
Cambridge,
CB1 3NF.
We reserve the right to not process returns sent to us without prior permission.
It’s your responsibility to retain possession and to take reasonable care of the goods in the period prior to return and until you send them back to us.
Your Right To Cancel An Order
Your right to cancel your order starts from the moment you place the order, and ends 14 days from the time you receive your order.
Non-Faulty Products
If you wish to return a product because it’s unwanted or it was ordered in error, please follow the returns procedure (see above).
We’ll happily accept a return as long as the product is still in its original shrink-wrapped packaging and is completely undamaged. You have 14 days from when you receive your order to notify us that you wish to return your order.
By opening a sealed product in any way (or using any digital download code accompanying your order), you waive your right to cancel or return your order.
Obviously we’d rather offer you store credit (in the form of a gift card), but if you’d prefer a refund, we promise to get this sorted within 14 days of receiving your return.
Please take care when ordering!
Faulty Products
If you believe you have purchased a faulty or damaged record, please follow the returns procedure (see above).
Once we receive your record, it will be tested by a member of staff in store.
If your record is deemed as faulty, you will be entitled to a refund, swap or store credit (to the same value as your initial purchase).
If this record is not deemed as faulty, we will not cover any additional postage and packaging costs incurred by either you or us, and we will not be able to offer you a refund, store credit or swap.
Basically, please be absolutely certain the record you have purchased is faulty before following the returns procedure. If possible, we suggest testing the record on different turntables and weighting the tone arm differently.
Steepletone and Crosley Record Players
After having several “faulty” records returned to us (that in actuality had nothing wrong with them), we cannot guarantee that any records we sell will play correctly Crosley or Steepletone branded record players.