BC Camplight – ‘The Last Rotation Of Earth’ album review
Brian Christinzio returns under his BC Camplight alias for a sixth studio album, The Last Rotation of Earth. In keeping with the patently apocalyptic title, Christinzio takes the listener on yet another tour of the idiosyncrasies of his mind with a focus on the darker side of life. For Christinzio, conventional musical practice is never an option, and hence, he never fails to grip the audience with complex themes, juxtaposing tones and immersive textures.
After a lengthy struggle with mental health issues and a related grapple with drug and alcohol addiction, the New Jersey-born musician relocated to Manchester, England, in 2012. Following the advice of a fan on social media, Christinzio hoped life on the opposite side of the Atlantic could breathe new winds into his sail following two critically favoured yet underselling albums.
BC Camplight signed to Bella Union in 2014 and enjoyed greater exposure over three subsequent LPs with the label. Christinzio, like his music, remains under the shadow of his former darkness, but The Last Rotation Of Earth shows a man welcoming melancholy and finding strength in his weaknesses.
In a new press release, Christinzio said The Last Rotation Of Earth “is a document created in the shadow of incredible darkness. One from which the creator hadn’t planned on escaping and still doesn’t. Hence the title of the album. It is the result of an illness that I’ve battled my whole life. It isn’t something that the world has done to me. It’s the world I live in, and it’s no one’s fault.”
The album introduces the playfully apocalyptic tone with its bold and vibrant title track. The piano-driven instrumentals are notably positive but juxtaposed by Christinzio’s characteristically dour vocal tone and wry comedy in the lyrics. This track fades out to welcome one of the album’s most intriguing moments, ‘The Movie’.
In ‘The Movie’, Christinzio discovers a perfect template for his unconventional whim as he breaks the song up into different cinematic acts. “I don’t find writing cathartic, but this was one exception,” Christinzio said of the song in press materials. “To step outside as the narrator to my own life did help in some psychotic way. It ends with a verbatim exchange of my break-up but with humour. I don’t want to say how shitty everything is over a 38-minute record. I’m still capable of being funny and alive.”
Indeed, Christinzio deftly sews the gulf betwixt comedy and tragedy in this new album. This playoff is reflected most clearly in the titular sarcasm of ‘It Never Rains In Manchester’, a beautiful track punctuated by orchestral excursions amid keyboard and guitar solos. Towards the close, a crescendo of dark clouds and stormy weather looms as Christinzio sings, “Look at this, it’s raining/Should we call a meteorologist or something?”
After the pulsing, poignant energy of ‘Kicking Up A Fuss’, ‘She’s Gone Cold’ marks another musical highlight for the album. The brooding brass introduction makes way for a trickling piano-based rhythm as Christinzio details a frosty domestic environment. Despite the prevalence of trademark humour, the track appears deeply personal as he sings of a spiralling relationship.
One might expect ‘Going Out On A Low Note’ to appear as the final track on the album, but it only seems to mark the beginning of the end. True to its name, the track brings a low tone and constitutes the album’s most poignant ballad as Christinzio addresses himself and his struggle with mental health: “I know you’re scared/I know you’re tired/La, la, la, la/That’s just how you’re wired.”
Rather than ending on a low note, Christinzio closes The Last Rotation Of Earth with the comparatively upbeat ‘I’m Ugly’, which is finally bookended by the mysterious and ethereal instrumental outro, ‘The Mourning’. “At stake now is every man’s fate,” a voice announces in the closing seconds.
The Last Rotation Of Earth shows BC Camplight at a new peak, both conceptually and compositionally. Though the album returns to dark humour in a new sonic setting, the themes and even the tone of his voice tell of newfound comfort in a kingdom of darkness and a deeper understanding of the human condition.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out New Music Newsletter
All the latest New Music from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.