Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There (2022)

Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There (2022)

    For anyone with their finger on the pulse of new music out of the mainstream, there was no way Black Country New Road’s sophomore record would be anything but underwhelming. Off the heels of 2021’s For The First Time, their debut record, listeners were eager to see what came next. Lauded for the two years of live shows and touring the band did before a full length release, several live show staples wouldn’t be found on For The First Time, with fans online compiling their favorite performances into bootlegs predicting what the followup would sound like. Hints of the direction the band would lean into were laid out prior to their second album’s release - Track X from the debut, live performances of tracks like Snow Globes and Bread Song, and former frontman Isaac Wood’s shift in persona from deranged narrator to singer/songwriter onstage. By the release of For The First Time, it seemed the band had run their style of jagged riffs and sardonic storytelling to a logical conclusion, ready for a fresh sound. Ants From Up There lays out an aesthetic developed partially in credit to minimalist composers like Steve Reich and Phillip Glass, modern indie folk outfits like Fleet Foxes and Sufjan Stevens, and of course, Arcade Fire. That being said, as any exceptional band does, Black Country New Road synthesizes these influences - and undoubtedly many more that make their way into the sonic stew more covertly - into a sound where no single influence dominates, but all combine into a unique experience.

In time you will find these things take up space inside your mind

Where you could be keeping honest thoughts of the sea alone

    As much of Black Country New Road’s sound is built around repetition to great effect, it only makes sense for Ants From Up There to open in the same way as their debut - an instrumental intro. Part of me wishes that both this introduction to the album was longer and that the overt Steve Reich influence it shows was more pervasive across the album, but maybe the beauty of it lies in how brief it is. In many ways the next track and lead single Chaos Space Marine is another oddity, a concise upbeat three minute pop hit on an album of expansive, melancholy tracks. Here, many of the themes of the album are laid out - flight and the pros of naval aviation, independence and codependency, and a failing relationship. To some, the track may pale in comparison to later epics, and to others it may be the hit out of a sea of moody, self indulgent music. But, for the journey of the album, Chaos Space Marine is the hats off wave as the ship sets sail.

But, for less than a moment, we'd share the same sky

And then Isaac will suffer, Concorde will fly

    Next up are two more singles - Concorde and Bread Song. The former is perhaps the most direct showcase of themes on the album, with Wood lamenting the potential loss of his relationship while realizing that he himself must pull away from it, no matter how much it will hurt him. Whether or not this relationship is shared with another person or with six others in a band is shrouded to the listener, but Wood contextualizes it in a way that nearly everyone can resonate with. Musically, Concorde gels well with the rest of the album that follows, with mandolin by usual violinist Georgia Ellery as a highlight. Bread Song exists largely as two distinct sections, opening with large swells of sound conveying ideas that the post rock genre was initially built upon - a focus on timbre and texture over chords or riffs. The combination of instruments builds a miniature orchestra that breathes and moves as one unit under the vocals of Wood, which encapsulate the feeling of trying to save a relationship as it is already halfway sunken. As the tension grows and grows, every hairpin of sound feels like it could build into a finale, until the first mid-song turn of the album. Drums kick in and the music regains motion, recontextualizing the verses from earlier that Wood repeats. While initially they felt as if from an inescapable well, they now seem to be from a state of liminality, lamenting what was but looking forward to the future.

You call, I'll be there

What's more?

I’m scared of the phone

Please know that I’m just trying to find

Some way to keep me in your mind

    On first listen and several more subsequent, Good Will Hunting stood out as my favorite standalone track. While others work incredibly well in the context of the album, I can throw this on while I’m walking to class and not sit down feeling like my emotions have been forcibly carved out of my body without anesthesia. The track’s opening guitar riff could be seen as goofy conveyed by many other bands, but as is the case with many other seemingly goofy concepts, Black Country New Road pulls them off convincingly. In a sea of longing swells and gels, musically this track provides a moment of levity while holding a personality of its own. Standout member here is keyboardist May Kershaw, with synths that dominated previous band Nervous Conditions and left a mark on For The First Time being saved on this album for this track - and to stellar effect, as on first listen my ears shot up hearing the opening. While this isn’t the only time her piano playing will be a highlight on the album, the combination of it and the drums on the verse (chorus? It’s a bit hard to say, the song turns the typical dynamics of a verse-chorus on its head) provide a well needed moment of toe-tapping. Another highlight are the backing vocals by Ellery and bassist Tyler Hyde, the latter being slated to take up lead vocals on future material. The track ends with a satisfying release of tension similar to moments on the debut but in a much more mature way. Again, Wood repeats lyrics that appeared previously in the song under a different musical emotion. Early in the track, he mourns his partner’s desire to find something new, but by the end he nearly seems to rue it.

But she wants to tell me she’s not that hard to find

And "message me if you change your mind"

Darling, I’ll keep fine

    Admittedly, Haldern is a track that hasn’t entirely grown on me yet. That’s something I have no issue with - every album has growers - but to an extent this track passes with a blink after Good Will Hunting. Lyrically it feels distant from the rest of the album, which may be in part because the rest of the album is so airtight in terms of themes and continuous references, but part of me feels like this could’ve been an excellent instrumental and a nice moment of rest in a very wordy album. The ending section shared between piano, sax, and violin is almost begging to unfurl into a wash of evolving minimalist music, but sadly the track ends there. Mark’s Theme picks up in many ways where Haldern left off, as an instrumental trio between piano, cello done by Ellery, and saxophone by Lewis Evans, who wrote the track in memory of his uncle and superfan of the band who passed away from COVID after the release of their debut.

I know you're scared, well, I’m scared too

That every time I try to makе lunch for anyone else

In my hеad I end up dreaming of you

And you come to me

    I’ll admit it. When I first saw the title The Place Where He Inserted The Blade, I expected something far more grim. As it turns out, the title is not in reference to a murder but to a. Cooking tutorial. That said, Wood takes something as simple as a cooking tutorial and manages to twist your heart over it. The track drives home the theme of codependency and the feeling that someone is the irreplaceable one, and to me is Wood’s most compelling lyrically. Were I to sit down I could probably write pages about this song, and in many ways that’s exactly what I’m doing here, but by this point in the album the music almost becomes indescribable. Building to what I can only describe as the damn best Muppets singalong of all time, the album could very well end there and be one of the most satisfying ways to end an album. And in another timeline, it does - the album so far has hit just about 40 minutes of music.

Did you ever get to ask what on earth he meant by

"Might take some time to learn how to use thеse bodies right

But it is for this that God has gave us both thе night"

    Whether or not the band placed these tracks intentionally, the album closes with two tracks that had become live classics, the first being Snow Globes. A masterclass in building tension, the track opens with a three minute instrumental intro, featuring ethereal vocals from Hyde blending with Evans’ sax overtop a steady pulse of guitars. Eventually, violin weaves into the texture as the main attraction arrives. Just as other members have had their tracks to shine on, Snow Globes is drummer Charlie Wayne’s spotlight moment, as his raucous free form drums serve an indescribable role in the texture, thundering and flailing over the pulse provided by the band. Just as the band reversed the typical contrast between verse and chorus prior, the role of drums to the rest of the band is reversed here. As the drums grow in intensity, so do Isaac’s vocals, and by the end Wood’s howls send chills in a way that can only be understood by listening to the music. As the texture dwindles, the listener is eventually left with the same solo guitar that the track began with - in time, everything returns to how it begun.

So if you see me looking strange with a fresh style

I'm still not feeling that great

    Much like Bread Song can be cleanly split into two sections, Basketball Shoes can be split into three. The first section is perhaps the best portrayal of the feelings that linger past the expiration of a relationship since Peter Hammill’s Over. Wood still sees his significant other everywhere he looks, and can’t distinguish what he sees now with old memories, no matter how much he changes in the present. This section gives way to a more drawn out presentation of the melody from the album’s intro, which itself eventually gives way to a more forward moving, rhythmic section. Wood tries his best to push out of what he’s feeling, but ultimately it is futile, as the music returns to a more bombastic and gnarled rendition of the intro theme. Swells of feedback more at home on the debut give way to enormous yet simple drums, as the track builds over three final minutes to a close that will be remembered in music history for years if not decades. Wood’s dreams grant him a moment of how he felt in the past, but when he awakes he realizes that the only way to heal is to truly move on from the past, no matter how much joy it brought him.

All I've been forms the drone, we sing the rest

Oh, your generous loan to me, your crippling interest

    In many ways, it’s hard to illustrate what Ants From Up There means to me, especially after only a handful of listens. To me, the best art is striking and captivating at first glance, but equally as rewarding when viewed the hundredth time. I have no doubt that this album will reveal more of what makes me love it on the fiftieth, hundredth, and many more listens beyond that. As for the band, I am incredibly excited to see where they venture next. Many bands over time have handled the departure of an enigmatic frontman - Joy Division, Pink Floyd, Genesis, to name a few - and these bands all continued on to make excellent music following a shift in style. For the future, I have no doubt that Black Country New Road will have several more projects to reinforce the genius of Ants From Up There. For now, though, the album exists as the current absolute pinnacle of what the band can do, and a more than fitting send off to Isaac Wood.