Black Country, New Road: Forever Howlong Review
The band’s third album is sprawling, gripping, and definitely not post-punk
By Owen Neaman
After their 2022 album Ants From Up There, Black Country, New Road solidified their status as one of England’s most popular indie rock bands. However, the widespread acclaim of their last album was followed by an announcement that shocked fans and critics alike: the departure of primary vocalist and guitarist Isaac Wood, due to mental health issues. The rest of Black Country, New Road announced they would remain together, and had already started writing new music.
Three years later, the band finally released Forever Howlong, their first studio record without Wood. In his stead, band members Georgia Ellery, May Kershaw, and Tyler Hyde took up vocal duties. The result is a daring, whimsical, and divisive record that breaks out of the band’s original post-punk mold completely.
Album opener and lead single, “Besties,” wastes no time in distinguishing the band’s new sound from the old. The sleek, ultra-clean electric guitars and angular jazz chords of the band’s debut are replaced with baroque acoustic guitar strumming, twinkling harpsichord, and marching-band sized horn and string parts. Black Country, New Road have always leaned into romantic instrumentation and epic song structures, but what was once an aesthetically minimalist rock group has now morphed into a full on prog monster: Yes and Genesis would blush.
However, this isn’t an unwelcome change. Embracing prog sensibilities allows the band to take plenty of sonic risks that were absent on their previous records. The whimsical arrangements toe the line between unserious campiness and earnest beauty. The title track and “For the Cold Country” have the sprawling instrumentation and dazzling musicianship showcased on Ants From Up There, but the bands’ lyrics seem to be far less angst-ridden than Wood’s. Kershaw, Hynde, and Ellery all give stellar vocal performances: some yearning, some soothing, some hilariously indulgent. Lyrics like “I'm a walking TikTok trend / But the colour runs out in the end” might make longtime fans flinch, but it seems to be all part of the band’s deconstruction of the mystique they had carefully crafted with Wood.
One thing that certainly hasn’t changed is the sublime atmospherics the band craft in each song. “Socks,” “Nancy Tries to Take the Night,” and closing track “Goodbye (Don’t Tell Me)” could be labeled as twee or fantasy-like, with ethereal falsetto vocals and earthy instrumentation (flutes, mandolins, accordions, and…tenor recorder?) creating a sonic world that sounds like a modern take on Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Some melodies refuse to resolve, keeping the listener roped into the band's mystical soundscape. “Goodbye” has an absolutely gorgeous coda, with a refrain of “I’ve fallen in love with a feeling / Don’t tell me goodbye,” a phrase as strangely hypnotic as the music itself.
The record drags at some points, mostly due to songs with similar arrangements (Particularly “Mary” and “Two Horses,” with their lilting and sometimes lulling acoustic guitar arrangements). However, one might argue it’s just another building block of Black Country, New Road’s fantasy land. It’s unclear where the band will go from here, as Forever Howlong is a daring exercise in scale, and whether the band can go even bigger is a tough question to answer. The future aside, this record continues their streak of stellar albums, and the future looks bright for this consistently creative ensemble.