BC Camplight @ Gorilla, Manchester, 23 January

When Brian Christinzio reminds us early on that he was thinking of going away permanently, the idea is still unimaginable. There is a swell of local support for this New Jersey-born psych-pop singer-songwriter who has emerged from eight dormant years to release his third record, How To Die in the North. Stationed at his piano behind a pair of tinted glasses and backed by a band formed at the Castle Hotel, Christinzio tries the album out, showing all the intention to start again from scratch.

Opening with the funky 70s stadium rock-tinted You Should Have Gone to School, Christinzio shows off his falsetto chops with backing vocalist Hattie Coombe before easing into Just Because I Love You’s timeless soulful swoon. Judging from his showmanship, Christinzio is clearly enjoying being back, standing to hammer the piano as the band rollick through Grim Cinema’s playful rock'n'roll fake-outs.

Bookending the upbeat Beach Boys harmonies of Thieves in Antigua, the lights go down as Christinzio bares himself in two revealing ballads, the standout being the aching Atom Bomb. “Here’s to breaking down, darling,” Christinzio sighs, and in the song’s staggering brass band climax, a sharp grief at past self-destructiveness slips between all of our ribs. It’s no surprise that his bandmates applaud him for making it through.

With a little catharsis out of the way, Christinzio surprisingly chucks in Blood and Peanut Butter’s bitter-sweet bounce – a nod to his first album Hide, Run Away, with Coombe the withering counterpoint – before diving into the blown-out bassy bongo beat of Lay Me on the Floor and his customary closing cover, a celebratory full-band garage rock jam. Sadly a club night limits us to an hour of this raucous rebirth, but once the glasses come off and we see the resolve in Christinzio’s eyes, it seems just enough for now. [Chris Ogden]