Can art truly be separated from its artist? A fascinating question, debated by many and one to which there is likely no final answer, but you would struggle to slide a Rizla between American singer-songwriter BC Camplight and his latest record, the all too aptly-titled Deportation Blues.
BC Camplight – real name Brian Christinzio – had pulled himself out of a self-destructive nosedive by moving across the Atlantic in 2011 and was settled and thriving in Manchester, his career very much back on track with How To Die in the North. But all that changed when the Home Office barred him from his adopted home after he overstayed his visa – leading to cancelled tour dates, a hurried move to Paris and even a rescheduled wedding.
And yet somehow out of this personal nightmare comes the wonderfully eccentric Deportation Blues, a record made with enough “don’t laugh you cry” attitude to pass any Mancunian citizenship test and a lyrical nous to twist a smile out of the stoniest cynic. The reconciliation of understandable angst and an ability to rise far above it on the wings of Brian Wilson melodies plays out inside the first ten seconds of the record as the title track snarls into life before immediately blossoming into a dreamy pop paradise with enough hooks and intertwining sections to form an entire album in its own right.
As Deportation Blues progresses it reveals its musical foundations to be sunk deep but battered by the winds of change – up top the tracks are in a constant state of flux, but they’re in no danger of crashing to the ground. Christinzio takes to the keys to deliver understated grandeur on the all-too-relatable (and with it quietly heart-wrenching) ‘When I Think of My Dog’ and intoxicatingly smoky bassment piano-jazz on ‘Hell or Pennsylvania’ but is more than capable of cutting loose with a mean combination of synth riffage and timeless pop vocals – look no further than ‘Fire in England’, born 35 years too late.
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| Credit: Ben Jackson |
There is a noticeable emphasis on the first person on the record, and maybe it’s a trick of the pronoun but these tracks seem to carry an extra few pounds of weight. ‘I’m Desperate’ is all fuzzy guitars and frenzied energy, its plaintive chorus one of the record’s most memorable moments, and the gentle wooziness of ‘I’m in a Weird Place Now’ comes over like a breath of fresh air through the speakers. And that he can start to wind the record down with the hazy ‘Midnight Ease’ and its plea of “everybody calm down” shows how far from self-pity Deportation Blues is – and how, turfed out of Manchester and uneasy in Paris, Christinzio has his sights set on an escape to the astral realm instead.
Words - Joe Ponting
Deportation Blues is out August 24th on Bella Union
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