BC Camplight’s How To Die In The North is 41 minutes of sophisticated yet classic pop music that fractures off into the ether just before it gets predictable. This is really good music that has depth and texture, dually, in its construction and lyrical themes.
‘BC’ is UK-based American expat Brian Christinzio. When BC is suffixed by Camplight, the name elicits thoughts of the first men chanting around the campfire, as well as Plato’s Allegory Of The Cave. This duality of primordial allusions is captured on the ostensibly lightweight doo-wop pop of the song Just Because I Love You.
The sickly sweet and seemingly inane chorus of this song, the album’s buzz single, is “Just because I love you, doesn’t mean I love you / And I mean ‘love you’,” which gives way to a verse that reveals this is actually a love story between an incestuous brother and sister: “Such an ugly girl for a brother to do.” One could infer this song is a hat tip to the secretly brutal 1962 doo-wop track by The Crystals, He Hit Me But It Felt Like A Kiss.
The following song Grim Cinema replaces implied depth with actual freak-out. This hella good tune is driven by an exhilarating falsetto and surf rock rhythm. The song’s flow is regularly interrupted by a moog that bubbles over, like a drinking fountain with a twig stuffed down its spout. This song feels like Frank Black and Daniel Johnston selling a trip to a Sloop John B era The Beach Boys.
In other phases, like the epic Good Morning Headache, BC Camplight’s music takes the folk-orchestral approach of Grizzly Bear on that band’s epic sophomore release Yellow House.
Listen to this record as soon as you can.
BY DENVER MAXX
