For The First Time is Black Country, New Road’s first studio album.
Black Country, New Road (henceforth BC, NR) is part of a new, open-minded British band scene that springs from the south London rock club The Windmill. Alongside BC, NR, The Windmill’s breakthroughs in the last few years include Black Midi and Squid. What all three bands have in common, apart from the young age of the members, is that they make experimental rock which, depending on your point of view, can be equally linked to progressive rock and post-punk. Of course, many other elements are also combined with these genres in an open-minded way. Another common feature of this new ”scene” is that the bands also use other instruments such as wind instruments and violins to support their rock instrumentation. Black Midi and BC, NR have even performed together under the hybrid name Black Midi New Country and there has been talk of a joint album.
Founded in 2018 and consisting of seven musicians, the BC NR is made up of both conservatory-trained and self-taught musicians. Standard rock instrumentation is supplemented by keyboards, violin and saxophone. The band’s quirky name was picked up from a random Wikipedia search (Black Country New Road is a major road in the West Midlands of England).
BC, NR attracted attention even before this debut album with their first single ”Athens France” which was released back in 2019. In the end, most of the songs on the album were released as singles before the release of the album, but some of the album versions are different from the original single releases. As such, this singles strategy is a bit confusing (although obviously successful!) as none of the songs on the album are really very typical singles material and it’s a bit hard to imagine them playing on the radio, for example.
For The First Time opens with an instrumental song that is simply called ”Instrumental”. The song is boisterous, but at the same time controlled music with a certain restrained tension. Something seems to be exploding all the time and even though it doesn’t really happen at any point it doesn’t feel disappointing. In this sense the song also sums up something essential about the BC, NR style. Which could be described as restrained intensity. ”Instrumental” is dominated by insistent electric piano ostinato and intricate drum patterns tinged with klezmer-inspired saxophones. Klezmer influences also return in the last track of the album. The band’s violinist is a member of the Happy Beigel Klezmer Orchestra, which focuses on Jewish folk music from Eastern Europe.
BC, NR’s musicians are all talented, but the band’s MPV (most valuable player) is 22-year-old vocalist and guitarist Isaac Wood. His songs and lyrics are an intriguing and contradictory mix of defiance and a neurotic forgive-me-for-being-here attitude. His voice is a mixture of Nick Cave, Brian McMahann (Slint) and David Byrne. You can’t always tell whether Wood’s vocals annoy or delight, but in BC, NR’s music they always bring a unique tension. That’s why it’s daring that the band started their first album with an instrumental song and so successfully!
My favourite tracks on the album, however, are the two in the middle, ”Science Fair” and ”Sunglasses”. Opening with a gritty electric guitar and a slightly krautrock pulse, ”Science Fair” is a fine piece of storytelling that Wood handles with alternately conversational and intense screaming. The rhythm section plays tight, the guitars crackle and attack with texturally buzzing saxophone in the band’s trademark controlled chaos. Occasionally the saxophone takes a more violent part in the romp, ripping in a free-jazz spirit. A little over halfway through the six-minute track, a darkly buzzing synthesizer comes in to crown this fine and original song.
At ten minutes long, ”Sunglasses” is a story in three parts, told from different perspectives or at least through different narrators’ voices. The song, which begins with a slightly dull shoegazing guitar, really gets going at the minute and a half mark with the guitar strumming a fumbling melody, and is soon captivating, if only by the power of Wood’s strange charisma. Saxophonist Lewis Evans also does a good job, sometimes playing melancholically melodic swaying patterns and then slowly increasing the intensity a little and building the music to a rip-roaring crescendo.
A guitar riff with a clean sound, keyed with a persistent sound, brings a twist to the song. The drum kit becomes more assertive and Wood’s vocals and lyrics increasingly defiant. He proclaims himself invincible in his sunglasses and, in fact, a modern day Scott Walker. But his bravado is soon shattered by his increasingly desperate assertion that he is more than adequate (”I’m more than adequate!”). Wood’s manic, at times downright hysterical, monologue is punctuated by insistently jamming riffs played alternately on electric guitars and saxophone or both. ”Sunglasses” is a fine and original song that reaches the finish line thanks to its intensity and attitude, even if the musical merits alone are not enough to sustain its ten-minute duration.
I am invincible in these sunglasses
I am ’modern-Scott Walker’
I’m a surprisingly smooth talker
And I’m invincible in these sunglasses
The band’s versatility is demonstrated by the fact that the penultimate track on the album, ”Track X”, adds a dash of modern art music spirit to the mix in the form of minimalist repetitive string patterns and pulsating saxophones. The wordless vocalisation of the female voice, on the other hand, sometimes pulls the track in the direction of indie rock. As a fun detail, the lyrics of the song also contain a reference to fellow scene band Black Mid.
The album finishes successfully with the track ”Opus” which contains its fastest paced moments and again a very effective dose of klezmer. At just over eight minutes, the composition is admittedly a little too long.
Read also: Black Midi – Hellfire (2022)
For The First Time has been a welcome and perhaps somewhat surprising success both critically and commercially. The album has been praised (though not unanimously) not only by the music press, but has also sold well, especially in its home country, the UK, where it reached as high as number four on the album charts. Not bad for a relatively experimental and unprejudiced debut album that mixes genres. Black Country, New Road seems to be in a good creative mood as the band’s next studio album Ants From Up There was released in February 2022, just one year after this debut. Unfortunately, this album was Isaac Wood’s last with the band.
Best songs: ’Instrumental’, ’Science Fair’, ’Sunglasses’
Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI
Tracks
- ”Instrumental” 5:27
- ”Athens, France” 6:22
- ”Science Fair” 6:20
- ”Sunglasses” 9:50
- ”Track X” 4:44
- ”Opus” 8:01
Muusikot
Isaac Wood: vocals, guitar Luke Mark: guitar May Kershaw: keyboards Georgia Ellery: violin Lewis Evans: saxophone Tyler Hyde: bass guitar Charlie Wayne: drums
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