I really didn’t think it would live up to the hype. People have been hyping this album and band up as long as I’ve seen their name. Their debut album was one of the biggest post-rock/post-punk albums of 2021, and was one of the most acclaimed of any genre. Even before that debut album came out, they were called the “best band in the entire world” by The Quietus. Every single from this album had fans clamoring for the full release, even with their previous album being less than a year old. When it came out, the majority of both fans and critics were calling this album an instant and timeless classic, and were already comparing it to the biggest and best rock albums from the past decade or so. As someone who tends to not love many of these artsy, post-rock albums, I was expecting for this to fall short. But instead, I totally get the hype and this is easily one of my favorite albums this year!
The music here is so dense and perfectly layered on every single track! “Chaos Space Marine” starts out the album at its most sonically dense, with the song’s explosive beginning, while most of the songs on the album rely on minimalistic beginnings and incredible builds. It’s also the most accessible track on the album, both because of the extremely catchy melodies and the fact that the runtime is a normal three and a half minutes. “Concorde” is another fairly accessible track, even with the six minute runtime. The build up is fairly traditional, and the metaphor of working insanely hard just for someone’s passing attention is fairly universal. But where this album really starts to hit hard is the latter half.
The one-two combination of “Haldern” and “Mark’s Theme” showcase their minimalist approach to songwriting and instrumentation. “Haldern” especially has these amazingly beautiful and repetitive violin and saxophone loops that just hit the spot every time. “Mark’s Theme” is a piece written by saxophonist Lewis Evans for his uncle who passed away due to COVID. The day he found out, he wrote a piece to honor him and that’s what this is. The final three songs on the album add up to just under half an hour of runtime, but they are three of the most emotional songs I’ve heard all year. “The Place Where He Inserted The Blade” is my favorite track on the album and one of my favorites of the year so far! The melancholic instrumental fits perfectly with Isaac’s heart wrenching voice and lyrics. The vocal build during the second chorus is also one of my favorite moments in music this year! It feels almost like a sing-along song, but for people that are distraught and struggling. “Snow Globes” has an extremely long build up that climaxes in an insane drum performance and screamed vocals from Isaac saying that, “Oh, God of weather, Henry knows. Snow globes don’t shake on their own”. The climax on this track is easily one of the most emotive moments I’ve heard in music in a very long time. There is also a 12-minute ending track called “Basketball Shoes” that has elements of every track put together to create this almost thesis-like statement that closes out the album.
It’s also worth mentioning that Isaac, the lead singer, left the group a few days before the album came out. Having someone like Isaac leaving is a big detriment to them, musically. His unique and desperate voice brought a lot of character to these songs, but he also cited mental health struggles for the reason he left the band. They had gotten to the point where it seemed that the only way to not make it worse was to immediately leave the group. So looking at it that way, I’m very glad that he left the band so that he didn’t get to a point that many stars have gotten to before. I’d much rather have him never make music again and be alive, than to make music and have his mental health get significantly worse than it already is. So even though it might be slightly disappointing musically that we’ll likely never get another album with this same lineup of people, I’m way more happy that he’s doing what’s best for him. And either way, this group of instrumentalists are talented enough to still make great music without him as a singer. In fact, they've even stated that they're already working on new music for the follow-up to this album!
Ants From Up Here feels like a moment, at least among the indie and progressive rock scene. In only a couple years, Black Country, New Road have come onto the scene and become one of the best and most acclaimed bands in a long time, and now they’re going to be completely different the next time we hear them. They haven’t even toured in the United States, only released two official albums, and only started releasing music in 2019, but this album seems to have elevated them from just critical darlings, to making one of the most widely acclaimed and loved groups in this genre of music. I’m sure that Black Country, New Road will continue to operate on a high level, but because of the circumstances surrounding this album release and how amazing it ended up, this feels like a special album that has the possibility to go down as an instant classic.
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