Sometimes bands need to reinvent themselves. This was the case with Fleetwood Mac due to the many lineup changes, or with Genesis after the departure of Peter Gabriel. After frontman and singer Isaac Wood left Black Country, New Road in a hurry a few days before the release of their second album »Ants From Up Here« in January 2022, the remaining six members had to reorganize and adapt their band sound. It was clear that they didn’t want to break up the band and that they couldn’t replace Wood’s allusive lyrics and almost manic delivery. Instead, Tyler Hyde, Georgia Ellery and May Kershaw now sing alternately or together, bringing a female perspective to the new album »Forever Howlong« with their songwriting.
The eleven new songs no longer culminate so regularly in noisy crescendos (although this is celebrated again in »For The Cold Country«), and tension and intensity are now also created with restraint. Highly variable song structures, harpsichord instead of electric guitar and the use of various wind instruments provide variety and surprises. Or the English sextet simply writes world-embracing, catchy pop songs like the cheerful ode to friendship »Besties«. With Black Country, New Road, music history now has a contemporary example of a band’s confident and courageous reinvention.
