The singer/songwriter processes his breakup with cultivated piano rock.
What do you do as a musician when your loved one leaves you? Sure: record an album. The breakup album has been a staple of pop music since the dawn of time, from Justin Timberlake to Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen to Taylor Swift, there are countless examples of heartbreak setting to music. Manchester-based songwriter BC Camplight’s new album continues that tradition, but brings in something rather unusual for this type of album: humour, a sense of the absurdity of one’s own misery.
Camplight, whose real name is Brian Christinzio, sits sadly at the kitchen table in a Kermit the Frog jumpsuit or suddenly bursts into tears to the heavy sounds of Faith No More. Storytelling is the great strength and focus of the album, dryly titled THE LAST ROTATION OF EARTH. Especially with “The Movie”: Script instructions keep interrupting the song until a whispered “Action!” returns the floor to Camplight, who asks to solemn piano chords: “Where is my fucking cake?” This lightness, despite the brutal themes like Separation and addiction inherent in the light-footed piano rock and lyrics lifts this album out of the familiar theme. If separation album, then like this.
Author: Elias Pietsch