Black Country, New Road made the Greatest Album Of The Year
Ants From Up There is a bittersweet album of overwhelming emotion and passion.
Black Country New Road is an English rock band formed in 2018. Six members hailed from the band Nervous Conditions, the band split after allegations pointed at their singer.
The septet, commonly referred to as BC,NR, released their first singles, Athens, France, and Sunglasses, in 2019.
Early on, the band is getting critical acclaim for the wild ride of rhythms and melodies, as helped from a wide range of influences even with just a few songs.
Their first singles were reworked into their highly-anticipated debut record, For the First Time, released in February 2021.
For The First Time sought lots of rave reviews and fanfare, and greatly influenced a new scene of British post-punk revival, alongside friends and contemporaries, black midi, an experimental rock band.
In the same year, they announced a follow-up. However, just days before its release, frontman Isaac Wood left the group, citing mental health issues.
That resulting album was released in February 2022, Ants From Up There.
For the second time, and quite possibly the last. We hear another full spectacle of the English post-rock group’s brilliant musical talent, and their sophomore is far from a slump.
Before I start, it’s important to understand For the First Time.
The album sought to expand the sound of their early singles; a thorough, complex array of dynamics tied together in a blatant post-punk style with Isaac’s spoken-like singing.
Their debut is a more proper introduction to the band, pushing their musical chops into scattered, well-formed ideas and play on and on with it.
You don’t need to hear the whole thing to capture the band’s dynamic essence, and to say that they’re an absolute pinnacle of British engineering.
Their second album, however, is best appreciated not only as a whole entity, but a next-level sequel for For the First Time.
Ants from Up There is a superb project, a loose narrative of loss and self-deprecation carried by the spirit of melancholic sea shanties.
The whole record exudes the bluntness of Modest Mouse, the defeated lullabies of Midwest Emo, like American Football, and the exquisite folk tendencies of Arcade Fire.
In fact, the band has drawn comparisons to the indie veterans Arcade Fire, something which the band has acknowledged.
But no matter the comparison, the underlying bittersweet fervor present in the songs feel anything but ingenuine and uncharacteristic.
Though as a first impression, it can come across as overambitious, or even, pretentious, which is why it’s important to know their sound first.
The blending harmonies of each instrument create such a moving sensation that almost never borders tumultuous, but instead, full of candidly sentimental letters.
About the cohesive melodies on display, it definitely brings out my soft spot for alternative rock, because of how intriguing and special it is.
The notable moments on this one, especially the second half after Mark’s Song, have such a firm grasp on what every note adds to conveying their inner emotions.
And even with its tear-jerker emotional value, It can sound lowkey ecstatic and grand, even when it’s lyrically more bare and vulnerable.
Ants From Up There starts with the ecstatic and folksy Intro into the equally folksy and uplifting Chaos Space Marine. This baroque sea shanty references Warhammer 40k as a means of carefree escapism, even when what’s to come in the future is of sorrow and melancholy.
So I’m leaving this body
And I’m never coming home again, yeah
I’ll bury the axe here
Between the window and the kingdom of men
Concorde brings us to the gist of the album’s poignant narrative. A simple glimpse at the cover sees the Concorde; a 20th century supersonic airliner.
Isaac Wood recurringly likens the plane as someone he loves and admires yet is so far away from him. Yet, on the other hand, he is to the Concorde like an insignificant ant from down there.
Though to you, it seems like an unhealthy sense of infatuation, but looking deeper, the album becomes more and more about a failing relationship that couldn’t be saved.
Bread Song is a more intimate and atmospheric track, with the narrator consoling his partner to give their relationship another chance, which is both rooted in emotional longing and a selfish fear of loneliness.
So show me the land you acquire
And slip into something beside
The holes you try to hide
And lay out your rules for the night
Oh, don’t eat your toast in my bed
I never felt the crumbs until you said
“This place is not for any man
Nor particles of bread”
Good Will Hunting continues the same sound of Chaos Space Marine, albeit rather lowkey, replaced by the more wide-eyed synths and Isaac’s melancholic melodies singing about hoping his partner still changes their mind.
Never texts me nothing
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
Another fascinating tidbit in this record is all the pop culture references, like in this case, Billie Eilish, and to some extent, David Bowie
“She had Billie Eilish style”
“Moving to Berlin for a little while”
Haldern is more characterized by the more spontaneous nature of the song structure and Isaac’s frail voice in this one, it’s one of the more tender deep cuts that elevate the album as a whole.
Mark’s Theme is a beautiful short instrumental consisting of the saxes and strings that convey this almost film score-esque feel. It’s underrated.
The Place Where He Inserted the Blade is a warmer and even more melancholic track that goes brazenly emotionally honest.
This really gets into the core of the narrator’s desire for codependency, and the unconditional beauty of having someone by your side, loving you, even after all that you’ve done.
I’ll praise the Lord, burn my house
I get lost, I freak out
You come home and hold me tight
As if it never happened at all
For me, it does bring a sense of childhood nostalgia, supplemented by the playfully sweet La-las at the end.
The penultimate Snow Globes is balancing between chaos and elegance, a 9-minute opus using the relationship of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII as a metaphor for the narrator’s own relationship.
And lastly, if you want a more condensed feel of the record, look no further than the 3-part, 12-minute long Basketball Shoes.
This multi-parted piece combines the themes of seeking hope, dependency, love characterized by such strong emotions that climax the album.
The first part feels hopeful yet melancholic, the second part starts with a more post-punk style and ends with preluding to the climax.
And speaking of climax its explosive 3rd act, a musical marvel that sounds like the absolute peak of everything.
The album ends with the narrator feeling regret over infatuating over someone else instead of the lover he serenades for so long to in this record, which on the surface, sounds like wetting over Charli.
Kind of silly, I know but trust me, it has layers.
Now if you excuse me, I’m gonna sit in this bed, and cry… for hours.
This is an extended version of my album review on my Instagram: The Left Ear with Lee. Be sure to follow me on Medium and on Instagram. Thanks!
