The music of Brian Christinzio as BC Camplight is in debt to pioneers like Van Dyke Parks and Nilsson. It's also a little close to that of contemporaries Father John Misty. On the new BC Camplight album, A Sober Conversation, Brian serves up tunes which are expansive and bold, and also full of idiosyncratic touches.
"Two-Legged Dog" sounds like something we'd have heard in 1974's Phantom of the Paradise, with Abigail Morris (The Last Dinner Party) lending her vocals to the cut. The number is a little over-the-top, frankly, and it's far more ambitious than lots of contemporary indie. Elsewhere, the title track has a fidgeting energy that's enticing, while "When I Make My First Million" is a cousin to those lush ballads we all know from Father John Misty records. BC Camplight makes all this his own, of course, but there's no denying that A Sober Conversation is slightly more accessible than earlier efforts.
Somewhere on this record, and in the live band, is Jolan Lewis (Temple Songs, The Pink Teens, The Foetals), and if I wasn't already a fan of BC Camplight, that might have been enough to draw me to A Sober Conversation too. The influences on BC Camplight seem like Seventies ones, like on the Lewis records, but Brian Christinzio is veering more towards a directly appealing sound here. BC Camplight mixes the balladry of Father John Misty, with his own obsessions on this album. And while there are bits that recall all the acts I've referenced in this review, there's also a quality here that makes A Sober Conversation a record like no other in 2025. Highly recommended.
A Sober Conversation by BC Camplight is out now via Bella Union.
[Photo: Marieke Macklon]