BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD
Be it the signals and nervous glances from one band member to the other, awkward pauses between songs and the reassessing of individual roles, there’s an undeniable sense of hesitancy emanating from the stage tonight. And yet, who can blame Black Country, New Road? Having lost their singer, Isaac Wood, in the run-up to the release of their much anticipated second album, Ants From Up There, at the start of 2022, the group have elected to carry on – albeit at the cost of jettisoning the material they’ve recorded and released thus far in deference to their departed vocalist.
Indeed, what’s being witnessed in the ornate surroundings of the Bush Hall is a reblooming of Black Country, New Road as they present a set of brand-new music. For sure, there are plenty of bands that have continued after the loss of a key member, but few have been so forthright in drawing a line between their past and present incarnations. Rejecting the notion of replacing Wood, the group have instead taken the decision to split the vocal duties between bassist Tyler Hyde, sax and flute player Lewis Evans and pianist May Kershaw. An undeniably bold move, it also shows that all three are still learning about what it takes to front a band – not least when performing music as challenging as this.
The basic template of rustic, baroque folk flavoured with jazz and filtered through the indie sensibilities of Gen Z remains firmly in place. Taking the stage to the strains of Grieg’s Morning Mood from his Peer Gynt suite, the message is obvious – this is a new dawn. As evidenced by opener Up Song, Black Country, New Road are looking ahead when they chant, ‘Look what we made together/BC, NR, friends together!’ among the stop/start dynamics that characterise the song.
Alas, the head of steam that they’ve gathered is derailed at the end of the Kershaw-sung
The Boy, when a plea is made by Lewis Evans for a 9V battery, thus bringing the momentum to a juddering halt.
From thereon in, it takes some time for Black Country, New Road to gather their composure, and the presence of cameras filming the show isn’t exactly helpful. Both Laughing Song and The Wrong Trousers suffer somewhat from cautious performances that don’t entirely convince.
But all is not lost. The utterly mesmerising Turbines/Pigs is where the new Black Country,
New Road come together to create a performance of haunting beauty. Helmed initially by the beautiful singing and delicate piano playing of May Kershaw, the song begins to grow incrementally as she’s joined first by Georgia Ellery’s plaintive violin and then the rest of the band for music that ebbs and flows with grace and power. And though it couldn’t have been made by anyone else but them, it
“ANY THOUGHTS OF BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD BECOMING A LITTLE TOO CLEVER FOR THEIR OWN GOOD MELT AWAY.”
nonetheless represents a major step forward from the aesthetic that’s come to define them.
Crucially, this is no fluke. In an act of welljudged sequencing, the feat is repeated on the jaw-dropping closer Dancers that finds the band pointing with confidence at the long road that stretches before them. Any previous thoughts of Black Country, New Road occasionally becoming a little too clever for their own good melt away like the snow that’s blighted London these last few days. Taking an upward trajectory, this slow burner teasingly hints at fusing klezmer music with heavy metal, but that soon proves to be a red herring. Rising from a whisper to a scream as the instruments gradually coalesce together, this is epic music that is set to transcend the band’s constituency and reach out to a wider audience.
Black Country, New Road are reborn.