I felt a bit guilty about my sarcastic review, so rather than invest too much more time I ask my AI friend for some help, I think others may have used this for previous reviews… ;) That said, it does sum up my main criticisms very succinctly.
“For a band lauded with such breathless, hyperbolic praise, listening to Black Country, New Road is a profoundly
disappointing experience. What the hype-machine labels as 'ambitious' and 'genre-defying' often comes across as merely
self-indulgent and structurally disjointed. They sound less like a groundbreaking collective and more like a collection of talented-but-undirected music students desperately trying to prove how clever they are.
Here are the key issues that stop their music from connecting:
- The Muddled Arrangements: The sheer volume of instruments—saxophone, violin, keyboards, guitar, drums—is not inherently good. Instead of a cohesive vision, the extended instrumental passages on tracks like "Basketball Shoes" or "Science Fair" often devolve into what feels like a glorified, overly chaotic jam session. The musical segues feel less earned and more like they suddenly remembered they were supposed to change time signatures, resulting in an exhausting, jarring listen. They're intricate, yes, but they often sacrifice essential musicality for the sake of complexity.
- Pretentious Lyricism and Vocal Delivery: The early use of 'sprechgesang' (spoken-singing) is a major stumbling block. It's a delivery style that feels more suited to slam poetry night at a university common room than a serious piece of art. The lyrics—filled with ironic pop-culture references and stream-of-consciousness narratives about middle-class angst—try so hard to be self-aware and satirical that they end up circling back to being genuinely pretentious. Even on later albums, the vocalists often deliver their verbose lines in a soft, largely unexpressive timbre that prevents any emotional connection from forming with the listener.
- The Identity Crisis: With each new phase, the band seems to chase a different sound, from post-punk chaos to soft, baroque pop, and even progressive folk. While some call this 'adaptability,' it simply feels like they lack a distinct, central identity. It's almost as if they are too afraid to commit to a melody or progression, hurrying into a new, meandering part before anything sticky or pleasing can actually take hold. They're a band that's perpetually searching, but haven't found a truly compelling destination.
Ultimately, Black Country, New Road's music demands a staggering amount of patience for a payoff that rarely feels worthwhile. It's music designed to impress critics and be talked about in think pieces, not music that moves you. It's a case where the concept far outweighs the enjoyment.
For an album that was touted as Black Country, New Road's baroque pop masterpiece and an essential 2022 release,
Ants From Up There is a
disappointing regression that trades genuine risk for overwrought sentimentality. While it certainly sounds more
polished than its predecessor, that polish strips away everything that made the band initially compelling, leaving behind a collection of meandering, melodramatic epics that owe more to the excesses of mid-2000s indie rock than to true innovation.
Here’s why
Ants From Up There falls flat:
- The Isaac Wood Vocal Dilemma: The most frustrating element remains Isaac Wood's voice and delivery. While the shift from abrasive sprechgesang to a more conventionally sung baritone might be an 'improvement' for some, the performance here often sounds thin, whiny, and frankly, grating. It’s an affected delivery that emphasizes vulnerability to the point of being overly dramatic and self-pitying, making the album feel less like a raw emotional journey and more like a carefully staged performance of angst.
- The Lyrical Backslide to Cringe: The band's lyrics—often praised for their references and narratives—become particularly problematic and hackneyed here. The seemingly profound themes of failing relationships are undercut by lines that are either nonsensical or embarrassingly specific to the point of breaking immersion. The recurring pop culture references ("Billie Eilish style," Charli XCX mentions in "Basketball Shoes") aren't clever; they're the sort of "of-the-time" writing that instantly dates the work and prevents the intended "timeless" sound from taking hold.
- Crescendo-Core by Numbers: This album is obsessed with the slow-build crescendo, borrowing heavily from post-rock's dramatic arc (think Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Arcade Fire). However, by relying on this structure for almost every track, it becomes a predictable formula rather than an emotionally earned payoff. The climaxes on 10+ minute tracks like "Snow Globes" or "Basketball Shoes" feel heavy and encumbered by their own size, often sounding like empty grandiosity rather than genuine catharsis. The complexity feels forced and the songs drag on without enough compelling ideas to justify their runtime.
- Loss of Edge for Genre Convention: The chaotic, angular post-punk influences of their debut, For the First Time, are almost completely abandoned in favor of a sound that is too often sanitized, pleasant, and unadventurous. It sounds like a band consciously trying to make the 'important, emotionally resonant' album that critics would adore, rather than the raw, exciting music that defined their earlier work.
In a few years,
Ants From Up There will likely be seen as less of a modern classic and more of a deeply
overrated artifact of early-2020s hype, where the ambition of the concept far outstripped the quality of the execution.”
