by Andrew Lewis

I deleted the Twitter app from my phone in January in the hope that it would improve my mental health. I was often frustrated, constantly angry, and forever disillusioned. The ignorant are winning the battle versus the informed. But I suppose they probably always will. I miss nothing about that world. Apart from maybe one man – BC Camplight.

Every word, in every Tweet, would fill me with positivity and enthusiasm. He thinks in the same way I do. He is a fellow troublemaker. As are his flock.

This is a man that has never made any bones about his own personal issues, and is happy to highlight them in his music. Happy to exchange with fans on social media. Just a normal person, kind of. And he has a new LP out.

As sarcastic and to-the point as ever, he covers all of the important stuff, not least in opening track, I Only Drink When I’m Drunk: Buckfast, Ace of Base, Mancunians. All the main stuff.

Without being overbearing or self indulgent, Shortly After Take Off flits between songwriting and experimentation pretty effortlessly. The Flaming Lips have spent an awful long time trying to make this sort of record again. Wayne Coyne could probably retire off of the back of a number like Back To Work – a fine example of a gently over-dubbed ballad designed to appeal to the 4am-ers that want to stay awake all-night, but also want to go to sleep for a week.

His time living in Manchester is covered quite extensively in his poetry. Rhyming Oldham and Texas Hold ‘Em in I Want To Be In The Mafia being one of his more lighthearted references. Even Crewe gets a nod. That’s what happens when you put songwriters on trains.

It is difficult to pick much fault. The well placed samples and off-piste production work perfectly, but, most importantly, the songwriting is of the kind of standard you would expect from a man with an active and powerful mind.

2020 has been bonkers to say the least, but it’s given us some wonderful music, and this album will be filed away in the ‘thumbs up’ drawer.