Forever Howlong by Black Country, New Road

Despite having been featured on the Top 31 twice in the past three years, the album at #18 should really be consider a debut studio album. Ants From Up There, the sophomore album from the original incarnation of Cambridge, England band Black Country, New Road, was featured at #11 in 2022. As I wrote in my review of that album, the band’s then lead singer, Isaac Wood, had left the band four days prior to the album’s release. His departure left the band without a front man and a full slate of 2022 festival shows to fulfill. Determined to carry on, the band threw together a full set of new songs to be sung by others in the six-piece.

Just over a year after the release of Ants, the newly defined band with their newly defined sound (they made no attempt to carry on with their Wood-led songs or to try and replace Wood’s gorgeous voice), the band released Live at Bush Hall, which landed way up at #6 in 2024. The album made a statement: we’ve moved on, and we’re even better than we were before. But a studio album it was not. In fact, the songs released on that fantastic live album will likely never be recorded in the studio.

Two years after that, the band has (hopefully?) finished redefining who they are, releasing the first studio album for this new incarnation: Forever Howlong. In place of the missing Wood, the three women in the band are now alternating on singing lead. Violinist Georgia Ellery (who is also half of the duo Jockstrap, whose lone studio release I Love You Jennifer B landed at #21 in 2022); bassist Tyler Hyde (daughter of Kyle Hyde, who is half of Top 31 alums Underworld¹); and pianist May Kershaw (whose “Turbines/Pigs” was my favorite from Bush Hall, and drove me to tears when seen live at THING 2023) each take lead on the songs whose lyrics they wrote.

Beyond the major shift in lead singing, there is very little similarity between this album and their last studio album. (On the interim live album Bush Hall, saxophonist Lewis Evans wrote and sang two songs, but he sticks to his instrument on Howlong.) I’ve been staring at the end of that last sentence for so long, trying to figure out how I would define this new era for BC,NR. The best I could come up with is “indie chamber pop prog rock,” which is, funny enough, how I’d probably define The Decemberists. But they are nothing like BC,NR, so that must be a terrible way for me to describe them.

Instead, I’ll do it the best way I can – by asking you to listen to them yourself. Check out my video from the band’s performance at the Moore Theatre back on May 24 last year, where they played the title song, “Forever Howlong.” You’ll notice the entire band are all playing tenor recorders while songwriter May Kershaw conducts from behind her keyboard. Yes, a song performed entirely with recorders, the instrument we all first learned how to play (badly) in elementary school band. Then there’s the opening track and lead single from the album, “Besties,” written by violinist Ellery. The harpsichord opening to the song is unlike anything else you’ll hear in indie rock today. “Happy Birthday” (featured in the video above), written by Hyde, is a lovely, meandering song about intergenerational discontent. And finally, I recommend watching the band’s KEXP Performance from May 2025. They perform the three songs mentioned above as well as “For the Cold Country,” also written by Kershaw.

It’s been a wild ride being a BC,NR fan for the past few years. I’ve loved every iteration of the band, and will stick with them should they decide to shuffle the deck again. But I also hope they stick with the good thing they’ve got going right now. Either way, I can’t wait to hear what they do next.

^{1. Underworld appeared at #30 in 2016 and #25 in 2024↩}

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