A Review of "Ants From Up There" by Black Country New Road
They've done it again.
Look, I know the danger of claiming an album is a masterpiece a month after release, but I have been listening to this a lot, like A LOT (trust me, my last.fm is embarrassing) since release, and I am ready to make the bold proclamation that Ants From Up There is a masterpiece.
I’ve accumulated a lot of thoughts on this album. So in this review I just want to talk about the music. Later this year at some point when a good amount of time has passed, I want to talk about the themes of this album because there is a lot to get to in that aspect that I don’t want to diminish how I feel about the music.
Black Country, New Road (don’t forget the comma) is something special. Their debut For the First Time was my favorite album of 2021, and I fell head over heels for this band. Their blend of post-punk, post-rock, jazz, klezmer, and art-rock combined with Isaac Wood’s distinct songwriting and vocal inflections was exactly what I wanted. Ants From Up There is not another For the First Time. If you had asked me what I would have wanted from BC, NR’s next album, I would’ve (stupidly) said “More of that!” This is because FTFT was only six tracks, and I wanted more tracks like that. AFUT is not just more ambitious than its predecessor, but more varied and layered, and pushes the band’s sound to new heights.
It is more ornate instrumentally, more chamber pop than rock at times. It at times feels like Arcade Fire (think Funeral era Arcade Fire), and “Chaos Space Marine” is a prime example of this. Sonically, it’s fun and playful, with these quick bursts or horns, strings, and pianos. It feels like the post-punk has been shed away here to make room for some truly gorgeous production. And man, the production on this is basically flawless. There’s a clarity to it, each instrument is presented with such pristine quality. Apparently because the band did record this album mostly live with minimal overdub, and it really comes across. The quiet moments are beautiful in how delicate they feel, but when the songs build and build it never becomes jumbled. There’s still that clarity, and every time I listen to it, I find new little details that I didn’t hear before.
Structurally, the band is still fond of long stretches of instrumental, at times so delicate and quiet you’re almost leaning in to listen. “Bread Song” for example, is one that felt initially offputting and meandering at first, but it’s a beautiful, delicate track where Isaac’s poetic lyrics pair very nicely with some gorgeous strings. A song like “Concorde” is surprisingly easy going for its runtime though, and presents us with some vivid lyricism until it does crescendo into something resembling previous tracks from BC, NR, but ones that feel more grand and dense due to a more lavish and delicate intrumentation and production. “Good Will Hunting” is one of the more accessible here, but still comes through with a fun, infectious energy and rhythm to it, as well as delivering one of the most memorable lines on the album “She had Billie Eilish style”. “Haldern” (which apparently spawned from a live improvisation) is probably the oddest track here in my opinion, but contains some more equally fantastic playing, and transitions nicely into an interlude of sorts with “Mark’s Theme”; a track that serves as a tribute to saxophonist Lewis Evans’ uncle, who died of COVID. It’s a wonderful instrumental piece that’s also a nicely needed breather before the final three tracks. The first of which is the incredibly catchy “The Place Where He Inserted the Blade”. I absolutely adore the chanted chorus as well as those amazing grouped vocals later in the song. It’s one of the most danceable, even when the lyrics contain some really heartbreaking stuff. “Snow Globes” begins deceptively simple with a some light guitar, but as it builds and horns and strings are added, the drums build into an absolute assault in the midpoint. Isaac’s vocals here are some of the most haunting, with most of the track consisting of this repeated line “Oh god of weather, Henry knows/Snowglobes don’t shake on their own”. Even though the song’s lyrics are pretty cryptic as a whole, Isaac’s pain as he eventually screams these lines sell the incredibly operatic quality. But the rest of the album is just building up to its final track, “Basketball Shoes”, which is probably the greatest song the band has made so far, and the longest at almost thirteen minutes. At this point I could write an entire essay on just this track, but I’ll keep it somewhat brief. It begins with another extended instrumental intro, but goes into a verse where Isaac really delivers some of his most personal lyricism. Then for the second half, the song takes an almost Midwest Emo direction, both instrumentally and in Isaac’s lyrics and delivery. It all eventually builds into a monolithic finale. It’s one of the best moments I’ve heard in music in a long time. There’s a sense of finality and grandiosity to it, it genuinely leaves me speechless every time I listen to it.
Ants From Up There is a much more personal record than FTFT. Although Isaac Wood went into some personal details on that record, AFUT is painfully truthful at times. It can be interpreted as an album about a failing relationship, but it also brings up some very personal and existential feelings. The way he speaks about some sort of jealousy on “The Place Where He Inserted the Blade”, or of longing on tracks like “Concorde” or “Bread Song”, there’s something so deeply personal here. It’s someone talking about their experiences, their fears and sadness. Throughout the album, there’s this recurring theme of some sort of frustration with technology, specifically phones. Isaac ruminates on communication and connection, and the ways I think we’re limited by technology, despite its supposed way of “bringing us all together”. Isaac’s lyricism vague, cryptic at times, but the ways in which certain themes (the Concorde, food, travel, technology) and motifs repeat and flow through the record help paint a picture, one that leaves room for interpretation yet conveys the feelings of each track. I want to share some of my favorite lyrical moments from this record where I feel Isaac’s songwriting is unbelievably poignant.
“And yes, I was tempted And I christened me lonely I pretended to falter And I burnt scented candles there And I hung some good pictures where Thе paintwork was perfect So no one could doubt it Oh, I was still losing"
"Okay, well I just woke up And you already don't care That I tried my best to hold you Through the headset that you wear"
"And I'm feeling kinda normal with a packed lunch Train rides don't hurt much these days We're all working on ourselves, and we're praying that the rest don't mind how much we've changed So if you see me looking strange with a fresh style I'm still not feeling that great"
Isaac also sings more on this record than FTFT. There are actual choruses on AFUT, yet Isaac’s delivery is still as idiosyncratic and dramatic as possible. Whether it’s his desperation on “Snowglobes” or his hushed, almost faint delivery on “Bread Song” or “Haldern”, it’s unique and singular. I’m personally a fan of singers who don’t have the objectively “best” voice and instead have a genuinely unique voice, and Isaac definitely fits there. From his voice cracks to the way his voice sounds like it’s about to break when he screams, it’s incredible to hear him on this album. And just like the instrumentation, I keep coming back and hearing a line and picking up on something new I didn’t notice before.
There’s a moment at the ending of “Basketball Shoes” that I particularly love. It’s during that big, loud, epic crescendo moment I mentioned earlier, and as Isaac delivers his final lines and the song comes to a close, you can hear members of the band cheering and wooing. It’s this moment that reminds me what BC, NR is doing. Their just some friends recording some music. The vinyl includes a booklet that has pictures of the band during the recording process. It shows them being friends, having fun, while also making music. It’s something really truly special. What really stands out to me is that I can’t necessarily point to another band that sounds like this. Sure, I mentioned Arcade Fire, but they’re music is so different to this in other ways, and they haven’t been the most consistent as of late. Even their contemporaries (of which I’m also following very closely) such as black midi, Squid, etc. aren’t doing music in this way. I love what all those bands are doing by the way, and their individual styles are great, but BC, NR just does something that connects with me more. It’s that special thing that can’t really be expressed coherently that a band does that just clicks with you. And it’s even better that I didn’t expect this. I never would have thought that they would go in this direction and that I would want something that sounds like this, but that’s the magic. You know, I sort of half joked that Black Country, New Road would make my favorite album of the year two years in a row, but I didn’t expect for this to completely floor me as much as it did.