Description

Release Date: Released 24th April 2020. 

Format: Clear Vinyl LP – BELLA1019V

“This is an examination of madness and loss,” says  Brian  Christinzio,  the  inimitable  force  behind  BC Camplight. “I hope it starts a long overdue conversation.”

  • Fired by his ongoing battle with mental illness, ‘Shortly After Takeoff’ is the final and finest chapter of what Christinzio calls his ‘Manchester Trilogy’, following 2015’s ‘How To Die In The North’ and 2018’s ‘Deportation Blues’. All three albums were created after the native Philadelphian had moved to Manchester.
  • Like ‘Deportation Blues’, ‘Shortly After Takeoff’ spans singer-songwriter classicism, gnarly synth-pop and ‘50s rock’n’roll,   with   Christinzio’s   similarly   distinctive,  flexible   vocal   carrying   a  fearless  approach   to   lyrical introspection   but   the   new   album   is   a   major   leap   forward   in   songwriting   sophistication   and   lyrical communication.
  • The ‘heavy stuff’ has come thick and fast for Christinzio. Just days before ‘How To Die In The North’ was released, he was deported and banned from the UK because of visa issues. Estranged from his new home, his girlfriend and his dog, unable to promote his album and back home with his parents, Christinzio sunk deep into the dark. An Italian passport, care of his grandparents, eventually allowed him to re-settle in Manchester but then just days before ‘Deportation Blues’ was released, his father Angelo unexpectedly died.
  • “I went into a spiral that was worse than anytime since my twenties,” he  recalls.  Hence  the  title ‘Shortly After Takeoff’: the feeling of being suddenly thwarted by what life throws at you. Making matters worse was  a neurological disorder  that returned after years in remission: “I see TV static, and it messes with how my brain interprets everything from sound to my own feelings.”
  • One way to process tragedy is comedy, which elevates ‘Shortly After Takeoff’ to a heightened plateau, from grief-stricken vulnerability to armoured bravado, from the black dog of depression to gallows humour. None more so than ‘Ghosthunting’,  which opens with an extraordinary (fabricated)  passage of  Christinzio doing  a stand-up routine, centring on the memory of hallucinating his father’s ghost. “I want to drag the listener into this world and hopefully they question why they feel uneasy,” he explains.
  • Bleak  comedy  is  evident  from  the  album’s  first  song.  ‘I  Only  Drink  When  I’m  Drunk’  features  Christinzio’s trademark ‘keep you on your toes’ style. He describes it as “Hank Williams on cough medicine being awoken by ferocious guitars.” ‘Ghosthunting’  similarly  changes  tack,  between  serene  melody,  classical  harps  and pounding  passages:  ‘Cemetery  Lifestyle’  appears  to  feed  on  The  Four  Seasons  and  crunchy  new  wave. Though  the  Nilsson-esque  ‘I  Want  To  Be  In  The  Mafia’  (Christinzio’s  favourite  lyric  on  the  album)  and  the elegantly  sombre ‘Arms  Around  Your  Sadness’  are  less  changeable,  the  way  ‘Back  To  Work’ trades  dreamy AOR  and  robotic  funk, “sums up this record perfectly,” Christinzio  feels. “The verse seems to make sense, then out of nowhere, boom boom… just when you think you have it figured out… It’s the never-ending cycle of mental illness.”
  • Christinzio says his love of stylistic shifts is also linked to a, “pretty low attention span. I’m always stirring the pot, I never let it settle.” His personal life is  similarly restless. Few might risk everything and abscond from the  safety  of  home  in  Philadelphia,  where  he  had  released  two  albums,  occasionally  played  live  with  local faves  The  War  On  Drugs  –  whose  current  members  Dave  Hartley  and  Robbie  Bennett  were  part  of  the original BC Camplight live band – and guested on Sharon van Etten’s ‘Epic’ album. “If I’d stayed, I’d be dead. Period.” he once mused and what was Philly’s loss became Manchester’s gain.
  • There, Christinzio has his friends and his band. On record, ‘Shortly After Takeoff’ is “95 per cent” Christinzio, plus  Adam  Dawson  (drums)  and  Francesca Pidgeon (backing  vocals,  sax,  clarinet)  and  guests  on  cello  and violin.  Dawson  and  Pidgeon  are  also  members  of  the  current  live  BC  Camplight,  alongside  Tom  Bellini (guitar), Stephen Mutch (bass) and Luke Barton (synths, acoustic guitar).
  • LP pressed on clear vinyl with digital download.

Tracklisting:

  1. I Only Drink When I’m Drunk
  2. Ghosthunting
  3. Back To Work
  4. Cemetery Lifestyle
  5. I Want To Be In The Mafia
  6. Shortly After Takeoff
  7. Arm Around Your Sadness
  8. Born To Cruise
  9. Angelo

LP includes digital download code.

Barcode 5400863026271