Black Country, New Road Are Still Defining Their Legacy
Black Country, New Road has spent the better part of 4 years answering a question most bands never have to ask themselves. What happens when the product of your group that people fall in love with no longer exists? Singer Isaac Wood leaving the band days before their album Ants from Up There released could have left them permanently defined by that art rock sound they revitalized so well on that record. Instead of that, the band rebuilt with the songwriting from Tyler Hyde, Georgia Ellery, and May Kershaw, eventually landing on Forever Howlong, an album that sounds like more like a new foundation than a continuation. At Saturn in Birmingham, the branches are still growing for their sound.
This style of venue was great for the show. Saturn doesn’t offer a space that allows lighting and production to define the band, and Black Country, New Road doesn’t perform like a conventional rock act anyway. The appeal of their set for me lies in watching seven musicians move around stage through changes in lead singers or guitars, highlighting the beauty of their talent and adaptability as they play in a session style environment. The quieter passages with Kershaw specifically felt chamber-like before the arrangement runs away with itself.
After they opened with “Longer,” the set moved through “The Big Spin,” “Salem Sisters,” and “Two Horses,” the latter a crux for the way its patient opening gradually gives way to chaotic, forceful back half. BC,NR are particularly good at making songs feel like stories in the mechanics and structures of the instrumental just as much as the lyrics. Piano, violin, saxophone, and accordion aren’t typical additions to a rock band but they’re accented use here redirected the mood a multitude of times.
“Socks” and “Goodbye” showed off the band’s quieter side before “For the Cold Country” built around the night’s most satisfying instrumentation passage. The show also featured the premiere of a song that was incredible and definitely a positive indicator for records to come with BC,NR.
“Besties, “Strangers,” and “Nancy Tries to Take the Night” led into “Happy Birthday” as the closer. Georgia, Tyler, and May give the current lineup a range of sonic possibility their earlier sound never had that I’m glad I’m able to hear, no matter how much I miss those Isaac Wood recordings. The arrangements and cohesion of Forever Howlong leave plenty of room for them to develop and define a unique legacy with these opened doors in their creation process. It’s tempting to frame everything the band does now as a response to Isaac Wood’s exit, but that gives the past too much control on the presen. At Saturn, Black Country, New Road proves that they’re a group with ambition, discovering how much further they can go.
