Black Country, New Road They are not a group, they are a cult. We are talking about a band that with only two published singles already made The Quietus magazine call them “The best band in the world“ And yes, we already know how exaggerated the British media can be, but the fact is that the impact of this band was even greater among their followers, becoming the type of bands that, as the Minutemen sang, could become your life, especially after last year the excellent “Ants From Up There”, a majestic album that was accompanied by devastating news, its leader and main vocalist, Oscar Isaac, was leaving the formation.
It was a very hard blow, the cult leader was getting off the boat at the time they were to become stars, the album received the best reviews of all of 2023 and rose to third place on the best-seller list in the United Kingdom , sneaking among the best sellers in many other countries as diverse as Australia or Germany. The followers of the cult (among which I include myself, despite an age that is almost double that of its members) are left with that feeling of orphanhood that the followers of other groups that were also cults like Joy Division or Nirvana had, and his bandmates with a real dilemma: jump ship or seize the moment? It was February 2022 and the band had already booked several festivals for that summer, none of the other six members wanted to throw in the towel, so they decided to take the middle street, they would continue but there would be a full stop, the material recorded with Isaac, on their only two albums released, was left out of the equation and they would have to find new material to convince people that they were still a viable project.
To a certain extent, it was making a New Order, although keeping the name, although thinking about it, perhaps the closest thing to New Order that has come out of all this is Jockstrap, and Black Country, New Road keep being Joy Division… But I’m straying from the main issue, the fact is that here we have six excellent musicians at the moment in which they have just released their masterpiece, in which the post-rock of their debut was extended with chamber pop and epic Arcade Fire, having to start from scratch and create a new repertoire in a few months for their live dates that begin in May.
Anyone with a song or idea brought it to rehearsals and in a democratic manner it was decided that each of the new songwriters would sing their own songs, bassist Tyler Hyde, the daughter of Underworld’s Karl Hyde, turned out to be the most prolific. , in addition to having the best voice of the new ones, but there were also songs by May Kershaw, the pianist, Lewis Evans, the saxophonist and flutist, and Georgia Ellery, the violinist who combines B.C., N.R with his own Jockstrap project. On May 19 of last year they appeared at the Patterns in Brighton and played a concert in which all the songs that appear in this live show that they are now releasing have already been played, in addition to the “Geese”composed by Ellery and sung by Hyde, since the violinist was recording her first album with Jockstrap.
The fact is that these songs have evolved through several of the best festivals, and venues, around half the world until finding their final form in the three concerts they gave in December 2022 at Bush Hall in London. Those of us who follow the band have been able to listen to various versions of these songs that were uploading to YouTube and verify something quite miraculous and that is that the cult is still alive despite Isaac’s departure. The essence of the band is still intact and the new songs are very good. Obviously this is not “Ants From Up There” nor is it expected to be, nor is it as cohesive, nor does it have as big a song as “The Place Where He Inserted The Blade”but in general it is much more than promising, the chemistry between the musicians is as alive as ever and the new composers show enormous potential.
There were doubts about what they would do with the new material, with the possibility of a third new studio album in 2023 (making the third in three consecutive years, an achievement in the current years), but in the end they have opted to deliver this filming and take the pressure off themselves, since it’s not a studio album it won’t suffer comparisons with their previous works but it does show that they are a functional band and that there is life after Isaac’s departure.
The thing starts with “Up Song”a song with which they say goodbye and pay their respects to Isaac, (“Look at what we did together, don’t know how you did it”) but they open the door wide to their hopeful future (“Look at what we did together, Black Country, New Road friends forever“) with the most direct chorus of his career, again with an eye on the first Arcade Fire. Hyde takes the lead vocals and does it very well, Kershaw takes over with “The Boy”, a song that sounds halfway between Björk and Joanna Newsom singing a traditional song. The song is rising in intensity and the band is entering and demonstrating their expertise as a collective.
Hyde returns for that beauty that seems to be the opposite of Dolly Parton and Whitney Houston, “I Won’t Always Love You”. Once again a calm and baroque beginning, with little more than her voice, Ellery’s violin and piano, a beauty of baroque pop to which the rest of the members are added again, in a second part that seems like the definitive fusion between the math rock “For The First Time” and the pastoral epic of “Ants From Up There”.
“Across The Pond Friend” introduces us to the third new vocalist, Lewis Evans, who has gained a lot of confidence with the passing of the concerts, in a song that again goes through different changes of intensity and rhythm. Hyde delivers another wonder with “Laughing Song”, a song with a huge, orchestral sound, great drum work from Charlie Wayne, and elements of folk, rock and progressive merging seamlessly into an explosive finale.
After a small intermission the second part arrives, and here they are definitely surpassed, with the most devastating songs of the same, first comes “The Wrong Trousers” by Evans, a song about a love breakup, with a nod to Weyes Blood included, which also ends up mentioning Isaac’s departure (“For we made something made something, something to be proud of“). And then comes “Turbines” (also known aso “Pigs”) which must be the saddest piece ever written from the point of view of a pig being eaten. It’s Kershaw’s finest moment and perhaps the most potent of the concert overall, again starting with little more than voice and piano until reaching an explosive coda.
Hyde returns to the main mic with another song with enormous emotional impact, despite its lyrics being much more cryptic.“Dancers” qwhich gives way to a melancholic final nod to “The Up Song” to end a concert (can we also say disco?) that makes it clear that there is life beyond Oscar Isaac for Black Country, New Road and that this band (or was it a cult?) remains the absolute pinnacle of new British post-rock.