There are few contemporary bands who can do musical reinvention quite as consistently as Black Country, New Road. From their Mercury Music Prize-nominated debut For the First Time, which touched upon everything from jazz to post-rock via klezmer music, to the art-rock meets chamber pop follow up Ants From Up There (both top 5 charting albums). Now, on studio album three, the band are once again building from the ground up in yet another miraculous musical transformation.
It’s a framework that includes everything from folk to prog via baroque pop and touches of alt rock – with nods to a variety of artists such as Joanna Newsom, Randy Newman, Fiona Apple and Janis Ian – yet all the while retaining that unmistakably unique sound that only this combination of musicians can come up with.
Forever Howlong is an album that once again proves no records of theirs will ever sound the same, while also cementing the fact that there’s nobody coming even remotely close to making music that sounds like BC,NR right now.