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Ants from Up There
2022 studio album by Black Country, New Road From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Ants from Up There is the second studio album by the British rock band Black Country, New Road, released on 4 February 2022 on Ninja Tune. Recorded at Chale Abbey on the Isle of Wight, the album was produced by the band's live sound engineer Sergio Maschetzko, and is the final album to feature lead vocalist and guitarist Isaac Wood, who announced his departure from the band four days prior to the album's release.
Written during COVID-19 lockdowns and road-tested during brief touring stints in support of their debut album, For the First Time (2021), the album was released almost exactly a year after their debut, and was preceded by four singles: "Chaos Space Marine", "Bread Song", "Concorde" and "Snow Globes". The band intended to produce the album as a collective body of work, preferring to focus more on vulnerable topics than fictional scenarios and more apathetic lyrics.
The album received unanimous critical acclaim upon its release. It became Black Country, New Road's highest-charting album, debuting at No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart and also reaching the top ten in Australia, Germany and the Netherlands. A deluxe edition of the album featuring live songs was released four months after.
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Background and recording
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Following the release of their debut album For the First Time, Black Country, New Road experienced a significant rise in critical reception.[1] Speaking to NME at the 2021 Mercury Prize awards ceremony, for which their debut album had been nominated, the band confirmed that they had already completed work on a follow-up, describing the album as "sad, epic, and possibly more universally likeable" and "more palatable" than their debut.[2] Bassist Tyler Hyde stated that "we have figured out what we're trying to say, so it makes a bit more sense. Some of the songs are shorter. We attempted to write songs that were three and a half minutes".[2]
In the months following the release of their debut, Black Country, New Road returned to touring as venues reopened in summer 2021. Rather than focusing on their existing songs, they began road-testing new material that would ultimately form the basis of Ants From Up There.[3] The band embarked on a socially distant tour in June to road test their new material. Drummer Charlie Wayne said they needed the tour in order to "workshop [the] songs" and "see how they fared in front of people".[4]
The band began writing for the album in July, when the United Kingdom announced a new lockdown to combat deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] The album was recorded over three weeks at Chale Abbey Studios.[5][6] Sergio Maschetzko, the band's live sound engineer produced the sessions. Hyde revealed Maschetzko had not recorded an album before, the band wanted to capture what they were playing live as close as possible and that they picked him because "he sometimes knows our playing better than we do".[4] As a result, the band recorded the majority of the album live in the studio.[4] In an interview with Uncut, Wayne said they started recording on the day that "everyone opened up in the UK". The band had been in a farmhouse for two weeks with no car, with Wayne noting the album was a "continuation of [their] isolation".[4]
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Composition and lyrics
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Ants from Up There primarily incorporates post-rock, chamber pop[7] and indie rock.[8] It has been compared to Canadian indie rock bands Arcade Fire and Wolf Parade,[9] with the band noting that they were directly influenced by Arcade Fire's Funeral (2004), Sufjan Stevens' Illinois (2005), Arthur Russell's Iowa Dream (2019) and Billie Eilish's Happier Than Ever (2021) during the recording process.[4] Hyde and drummer Charlie Wayne stated that the album took some structural influence from pop music, describing its makeup as "more conceptually pop than sounding like pop". Compared to their debut, Ants from Up There was the first album where the band specifically sought to make every song fit with the others as "one body of work", according to saxophonist Lewis Evans.[10]
Many of the album's tracks stem from initial writing sessions between Wood, Hyde and guitarist Luke Mark, who lived together during the first COVID-19 lockdown. Wayne said he first heard ideas for "Concorde" and "The Place Where He Inserted the Blade" while hanging out in their kitchen.[4] In January 2021, a month before the release of their debut, the full band convened for a week to work on new material, where each member "brought their own constituent parts" to songs.[4] Hyde stated that most tracks were written at the same time, being "essentially birthed" by "Basketball Shoes".[10] Hyde and Wayne said Ants from Up There features more vulnerable lyrical topics in contrast to their debut's apathetic tone and fictional scenarios.[10][11]
The album opens with a 54-second instrumental piece, "Intro".[12] It incorporates klezmer elements, a style of Jewish music which Evans and Georgia Ellery had experience playing, and was one of the first songs the band wrote, predating their debut.[13][14][15] "Chaos Space Marine" got its name from the eponymous miniature figurines in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise,[16] fusing glam rock.[17] The lyrics combine grandiose imagery with introspective anxiety, referencing England and pop culture figures like Billie Eilish.[3] "Concorde" was inspired by science fiction stories including Luca and 2012.[13] In an interview with Consequence, the band said that they used the mandolin to give the song "unpredictability" and "a snappy and spiky element".[18] "Bread Song" is musically rooted in baroque pop[7] and post-rock.[3] The style of and instrumentation of it were inspired by Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, wherein the band were to play without definitive timing and cues.[19] The track's narrator is "left feeding on crumbs" the lasting memory of the affair being the moment they were kicked out of bed for eating toast,[3] containing the line "Don't eat your toast in bed".[20][21] "Good Will Hunting" is a lyrically dense track[20] blending Midwest emo,[15] jazz,[22] and grunge textures.[17] The band listened to the music of Kurt Vile during the writing of the song, which was written in two versions with different time signatures; the final version is a combination of both.[23][13]
"Haldern" was named after the Haldern Pop music festival in Germany, which the band played during the pandemic.[24] Built on minimalist piano patterns, it crescendos from staccato strings and saxophone to "a malaise of these elements".[25] The lyrics wrestle with self-pity.[12] It is the only song on the album to originate from an improvisation session.[13] "Mark's Theme" is a saxophone-led instrumental written by Evans following the passing of his uncle Mark from COVID-19 in 2021.[13][25] The Line of Best Fit described it as a "mournful instrumental subminity",[7] akin by MusicOMH to Tom Waits or Edward Hopper's visual world.[25] "The Place Where He Inserted the Blade" is a flute-led track where the song feels reciprocal and gentle, dealing with trust and vulnerability in relationships.[24] Its recording was noted as difficult due to a technical error on Wayne's part.[26] "Snow Globes" is a nearly 10-minute[12] post-rock epic that begins with a repetitive guitar pattern[25] and slowly builds tension through a harmonising guitar and polyrhythmic drumming.[12] It was performed as early as January 2020 and in a 2020 Christmas livestream concert with Black Midi, with the band adding new elements to each successive live performance; they also took inspiration from Frank Ocean's song "White Ferrari".[23][13] Its first take was used on the album.[26] "Basketball Shoes" is a twelve-minute closing[27] post-rock epic[25] and emotional summit of the album.[27] "Basketball Shoes" contains various motifs from throughout the album, such as from "Concorde", "Snow Globes" and "Intro".[23][13] Structured like a surrealist three-act play,[25] it evolves from delicate poetry to aggressive emo, resulting in an ultimate climax of saxophone, violin, and vocals.[8] It was one of the first songs the band wrote and predates For the First Time, originally describing an unhealthy obsession with British singer Charli XCX in its earliest form before undergoing lyrical changes for the final version.[14][15]
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Release
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Ants from Up There was announced on 12 October 2021 alongside the release of the album's first single, "Chaos Space Marine", which Wood described as "the best song [they have] ever written".[28] The album's title was finalised by the band on the day of its deadline.[10] It refers to the appearance of people while viewed from an airplane, tying in with the album cover and the recurring lyrical theme of the Concorde jet.[11] The artwork for the album was made by Simon Monk.[11] The artwork for the promotional materials came from the band members' childhood drawings.[11] On 2 November 2021, the band released "Bread Song" as the second single.[19]
"Concorde" would release on 30 November as the album's third single.[29] "Snow Globes", the fourth and final single, was released on 19 January 2022.[30] In a statement, Wayne noted the contrast between the drum track and the rest of the instruments, serving in a more independent and expressive role.[31] Four days before the album's release, Wood announced his departure from the band, citing mental health reasons. He clarified he was still on good terms with the band.[32] The remaining members said they would not perform music written with Wood after his departure.[27]
Ants from Up There officially released on 4 February through Ninja Tune.[33] The band were meant to begin a tour in support of the album in February, however dates were cancelled after the departure of Wood.[33][34] Later, another tour beginning in May without Wood began, concluding in September.[35] The band would once again road test new material on this tour.[35] A deluxe edition of the album was released on 10 June, featuring songs performed live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.[36]
Critical reception
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Ants from Up There received universal acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, the album has received an average score of 92, based on 20 reviews.[38] The album has been widely touted as a "masterpiece", receiving many perfect scores from critics upon release.[40][8][7] According to Metacritic, it was the third-most critically acclaimed album of 2022.[42]
NME proclaimed that the band managed "to pivot towards more familiar, accessible sounds and embrace traditional song structures – without sacrificing an ounce of their musical wizardry or inventiveness", declaring it "truly remarkable" and a "future cult classic" in the wake of Wood's departure.[8] The Independent declared that "the sheer grace and ambition of Ants... will prove tough for 2022 to top", citing the "grunge rock crescendos accompanying images of burning starships on 'Good Will Hunting', and gargantuan arias on the 12-minute 'Basketball Shoes'" as track highlights.[17] Ian Cohen of Pitchfork praised the album's "life-affirming", emo-like sentimentality in a review awarded Best New Music; he stated that by "manifesting every glimmer of hope as a heaven-sent beacon and every letdown as a plunge towards the void," the band captured the essence of "adjacent masterpieces like [Neutral Milk Hotel's] In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, [Titus Andronicus's] The Monitor, and [Car Seat Headrest's] Teens of Denial" en route to Ants' 'beautifully doomed fantasies.'"[12] AllMusic's Timothy Monger described the album as "an impressive one, rife with forward momentum but preempted by its own self-mythology" regarding Wood.[39]
Special praise was reserved for Wood's songwriting, widely lauded as an album highlight for its emotional intensity and depth. Jamie Kilkenny of Clash noted that "[t]he angle of [Ants'] lyrical riches grows ever more sentimental and singular" over repeated listens, and that "only Wood could wring so much profundity from a pleading wail to 'show me the place where he inserted the blade'; or the beauty wrapped in the seemingly mundane 'particles of bread' on the marvel of 'Bread Song'".[22] The Line of Best Fit's Kyle Kohner gave the album a perfect score, praising Wood as a "clairvoyant" author of "witty, abstract storytelling" on Ants and remarking upon his position as "the wry mouthpiece of a band... keenly speaking to a generation of young people".[7] Tom Morgan of PopMatters applauded the band's "bold and progressive" compositions, but particularly distinguished Wood's lyrics as "unique and often profound," hailing his "deft, resonant words" for their "contemporary relevance" in contrast to those of his indie coevals.[20]
Critics also singled out closing track "Basketball Shoes" for praise, hailing the song's "astonishing" scope[8] and "devastating, yet cleansing" emotional impact.[7] Sam Richards of Uncut compared the song favorably to "Marquee Moon" and the work of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, praising it as "a moment of euphoria, catharsis or collapse" and declaring it "a gut-wrenching epic of Dostoevskian proportions".[24]
The album was named a "Critic's Pick" by The New York Times.[27]
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Track listing
All tracks are written by Charlie Wayne, Georgia Ellery, Isaac Wood, Lewis Evans, Luke Mark, May Kershaw, and Tyler Hyde.
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Personnel
Adapted from vinyl liner notes and Uncut.[55][24]
Black Country, New Road
- Charlie Wayne – drums, backing vocals
- Georgia Ellery – violin, mandolin, cello, backing vocals
- Isaac Wood – vocals, guitar
- Lewis Evans – saxophone, flute, backing vocals
- Luke Mark – guitar, backing vocals
- May Kershaw – keyboards, marimba, glockenspiel, backing vocals
- Tyler Hyde – bass, backing vocals
Additional personnel
- Tony Fagg – banjo (track 2)
- Mark Paton – vocals (track 7)
- Basil Tierney – additional drums (track 10)
- Christian Wright – mastering
- Sergio Maschetzko – engineering, mixing
- David Granshaw – engineering, mixing
- Tomas Moreno – additional engineering
- Simon Monk – art
- Joseph Durnan – layout
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Charts
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References
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