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Black Country, New Road "Ants From Up There"


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Loved the first LP. New album is up for pre-order today. Rough Trade already sold out there indie version alotment but the band has that version and a few others:

 

https://blackcountrynewroad.bandcamp.com/album/ants-from-up-there

 

Also, repress of "For The First Time" is up as well. 

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50 minutes ago, muttler said:

The deluxe 4LP version is a great price on their Bandcamp... I have to assume it is a mistake. Shipping is very reasonable too (to Australia anyway). Was only $60 AUD (about $45 USD) shipped to Australia.

Yeah, it's the same price as the 2LP, so I also assumed that was a mistake.

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3 hours ago, muttler said:

The deluxe 4LP version is a great price on their Bandcamp... I have to assume it is a mistake. Shipping is very reasonable too (to Australia anyway). Was only $60 AUD (about $45 USD) shipped to Australia.

pretty sure it was a mistake but having already ordered the signed blue i’m not sure i can justify another $43 for the live tracks and a couple of prints 😢

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  • 3 months later...

They just announced that their upcoming shows/tours have been canceled and that their singer/guitarist, Isaac Wood, has decided to leave the band. They will apparently keep going despite losing a pretty important part of their sound. In addition to his distinct vocals, I'm guessing Isaac had a hand in writing lyrics. It will be interesting much of that factors into changes to the overall sound of the band.

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Truly wild timing.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard of a band undergoing such a definitive fracture in the same week their latest album is dropping.  I think that’s a pretty big testament to you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.  The band certainly won’t be the same without him.  What do you guys make of their future?  I personally love a lot of their instrumentation and song arrangements.  I have no idea how much of that is structured on Isaac’s shoulders or if he’s exclusively their lyricist / vocalist… but regardless, I think the band still has so much potential.  Even with the massive shoes Isaac’s leaving behind to fill.  I hope he gets the help or space that he needs to reach a better place.  All of this is going to add a whole new depth and weight to Friday’s listen of AFUT, for me.

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35 minutes ago, Bronchitis said:

I always thought this band was some campfire alternative radio folk band like Lumineers for some reason. They aren’t too bad. The stuff I listened to reminds me of Smoke a bit. 

Haven't heard of Smoke but maybe I should fix that.

What did you sample out of curiosity?  Any of the new singles from Friday's album are admittedly a lot more "pretty" and have an indie pop flare.  The band claims they were listening to a ton of Arcade Fire when writing and recording, and it shows.

Their other album [debut] is a lot more experimental and gets compared to a proggier, harder Slint.

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4 minutes ago, Derek™ said:

Haven't heard of Smoke but maybe I should fix that.

 
 
 
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What did you sample out of curiosity?  Any of the new singles from Friday's album are admittedly a lot more "pretty" and have an indie pop flare.  The band claims they were listening to a ton of Arcade Fire when writing and recording, and it shows.

 

 

Their other album [debut] is a lot more experimental and gets compared to a proggier, harder Slint.

I’m not too sure if it will totally be your thing or if I’m crazy and they aren’t actually kind of similar, but Another Reason To Fast by Smoke is a great album. Clean White Bed is my favorite song by them.

I went through the first few songs that are on their Spotify page. I’m going to check out more on my drive home from work.

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5 minutes ago, Bronchitis said:

I’m not too sure if it will totally be your thing or if I’m crazy and they aren’t actually kind of similar, but Another Reason To Fast by Smoke is a great album. Clean White Bed is my favorite song by them.

I went through the first few songs that are on their Spotify page. I’m going to check out more on my drive home from work.

Always down to try your recommendations with an open mind.

And yeah, I imagine that the top songs on Spotify are probably their new singles from their sophomore album dropping on Friday.  I'd be eager to hear what you make of that debut (For The First Time) if you get some time to sit down with it.  It's a shorter album but really consistent start to finish, I think.

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6 minutes ago, Derek™ said:

Always down to try your recommendations with an open mind.

And yeah, I imagine that the top songs on Spotify are probably their new singles from their sophomore album dropping on Friday.  I'd be eager to hear what you make of that debut (For The First Time) if you get some time to sit down with it.  It's a shorter album but really consistent start to finish, I think.

Totally cool with shorter albums since I don’t have a lot of time to listen to music for the time being. I’ll check it out.

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New album is really something special.  At least on first impression, after avoiding most singles.  Not only is the band's stylistic leap noticeable – maybe even jarring for some – but I feel like their compositional skills have skyrocketed since we last heard them.  The strings and brass struck me as super tasteful throughout this thing.  I'm also grateful that they didn't wear their influences on their sleeve and just ape Arcade Fire for an hour, too.  There are no shortage of straight-up mesmerizing moments across the runtime here; I hope you all enjoy it as much as I am so far.  Isaac will be missed but we were given gold across two incredibly different albums.  I'm gonna' enjoy flip-flopping between their sounds depending on my mood.

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definitely excited to hear this when the clock strikes midnight tonight. was superstoked to see them in 3 weeks until the band delivered the shocking news. going to be a bittersweet experience listening to this. based on the singles and the debut i know i will enjoy the new album just as much, if not more. 

isaac’s departure will be deeply felt. bcnr won’t be the same without him for obvious reasons. perhaps they will make songs without vocal in the future. two albums in two years. perhaps the gap between albums 2 and 3 will be a little longer and the hope is that issac will have recovered from whatever he’s been dealing with and rejoin the band and grace us with his talent once more. 

Edited by wuhanclan
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First play through: Thought I'd play this whilst I worked and ended up not doing any work and just had to sit there listening to this. It's brilliant. Like 10/10 AOTY brilliant and fuck me it's February and let's call it that now. If by listening to the singles you imagined this to be the more accessible BC,NR album, then yes you're right. I also think this is more successful, possibly commercially, but musically it's does everything I like being adventurous and huge, but not ever vast or sprawling to make it a boring hour.

I'm glad that there is more beauty within Ants From Up There than on For The First Time; on FTFT, you had to sweat it out during the sections of blood boiling rage and intensity, it was more challenging because you'd have some uncompromising ferocity that was your sole and immediate attention. It makes FTFT a difficult album for me to spin, I really need to be in the mood to listen to it because it gets in my headspace and I just end up sitting there, helpless. Ants From Up There is NOT like that, it's more gentle and pure (probably because it seems to be lyrically more relationship focussed, than themes on aspiring uppermiddle-class british cuntery), but that BC,NR energy is focussed differently into being bigger and better than FTFT.

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.

I hope Isaac gets the time he needs to get into a creative space again, either with BC,NR or elsewhere, but I look forward to whatever both parties put out (maybe something together in the future). But I should get back to work now. Fuck.

 

EDIT: I think today is bandcamp friday so you might as well grab this from their bandcamp today https://blackcountrynewroad.bandcamp.com/album/ants-from-up-there

Edited by whoa
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can’t quite get the arcade fire vibes that a lot of people have talked about but i hear bits of bright eyes, american football and isaac’s vocal is so jarvis cocker as always. i really like this album. ordered the deluxe 4LP as well, just for the live tracks. 

Edited by wuhanclan
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