“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. “It’s important to stress that this isn’t a redemption story,” he says. “I’m a guy who maybe lives a little hard and I’m in the thick of some heavy stuff. But as a result, I think I’ve made my best record.”

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 any time 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 percent” 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.