Ants From Up There - Black Country, New Road

 

Ants From Up There

Black Country, New Road

February 4th 2022

LP2

Background

Black Country, New Road is a six-piece, formerly seven-piece English indie rock band. Formed in Cambridge, they became popular in the Brixton Scene in 2019.

My Opinions and Takes

Track List Overall Rating:

1. Intro (Interlude but a solid 14/20)

2. Chaos Space Marine (15/20)

3. Concorde (14/20)

4. Bread Song (18/20)

5. Good Will Hunting (19/20)

6. Haldern (18/20)

7. Mark’s Theme (15/20)

8. The Place Where He Inserted The Blade (18/20)

9. Snow Globes (16/20)

10. Basketball Shoes (20/20)

Why (My Reasoning and Perspective) 

This album is all over the place, yet stays the same all in a carefully crafted good way????

I’m not a very jazzy or musical person, I tried to play alto sax, and I was okay at it, but I didn’t take much away from it, when I tell, you by the end of the time listening to this album around a few months ago I wanted to get back into it so much.

The lyrics sometimes falter as you can tell as the band clearly has a few favourite words (Concorde, Clamp) but the instrumentation picks up for it. Intro although an interlude is a song I cannot skip when listening to the album, many people around me find it annoying but I think it’s a highlight in its own.

I may be a little biased, but the Alto Saxophone on this album is a genuine peak; the tone is perfect. For some reason, after listening to other bands, I would’ve liked it to sound like how it sounded in Mark’s Theme in the other tracks. 

Haldern and Snow Globes pluck at the heartstrings they are genuinely beautiful songs like I could envision dying while those songs play.

There isn’t truly a band that sounds like how they do, but some songs kind of remind me of Are We There Yet? - James Marriott, specifically Good Will Hunting > Going Postal at The Party

The lyricism is peak, instrumental is peak 

19/20