Ants From Up There

The drummer: "I feel like I haven't really got the chance to truly express myself throughout the album."
The band: "fine, just pick a random track and go completely cuckoo bananas on it."
*Snow Globes*

For some unknown reason I have yet to review my favorite album from last year, and in my opinion also one of the best albums of the decade so far. This band needs no introduction at this point, Black Country, New Road is easily one of my favorite bands working today. So let's talk about the band's modern masterpiece.

Ants From Up There is Black Country, New Road's sophomore album. Their debut "For the first time" was a fantastic introduction to the band, displaying their unique personality and insane ambition right out of the gate. However, this album finds the band going in a different direction while maintaining their core elements. This album is more ambitious, melodic, anthemic, and in my opinion way more emotional and personal as well.

This album is certainly one of the grandest albums I've heard from the last couple of years, and it's safe to say that the ambition paid off. The result is an emotionally powerful journey into the complexities of relationships, that will leave you exhausted from the amount of raw emotions that it expresses and from its dense instrumentals.

Production-wise, this album is stellar to say the least. The band's talent is on full display, you can clearly hear the incredible chemistry between them within the instrumental dynamics, and within the arrangements that they create effortlessly. The production is extremely lush and comforting, with jazzy instruments such as the amazing saxophone played by Lewis Evans alongside chamber pop elements that are creating some gorgeous melodies.

Like I already said, the album is insanely grand. The song structures are amazingly ambitious, more or less every song builds up towards a larger than life climax, that is causing a powerful catharsis and tension-release after the intense build ups of some of the songs throughout the tracklist. Pretty much every track is a damn powerhouse.

The atmosphere on the album is melancholy bittersweet. At times uplifting like on the track Chaos Space Marine and at other moments quite depressing like on Haldern, the album offers a very wide variety of emotions. The production feels magnificently lively and authentic as well, which is appropriate with the raw vocals of the singer.

Talking about the singer, Isaac's performances are impeccable. When he left the band, it's no wonder that fans were deeply concerned about the future of the beloved group. Isaac genuinely ties everything together. Although the instrumentals are fantastic, it's Isaac that brings the emotional punch to the mix. Expressive would be an understatement, his passion is dripping through your headphones, and his unbelievable charisma is mesmerizing.

Shouting, crying, singing and talking, Isaac truly does everything on the project. Every word that comes out of his mouth feels incredibly personal and meaningful, thanks to his vocal delivery. The album wouldn't be the same without him. Even though I think the band still has a bright future even without him, due to the insane talent within the members, Isaac was a one of a kind vocalist, and I hope he might come back to the band in the future.

Thematically, the album is either about a long-distance relationship, or trying to maintain a relationship after one of the partners moved to a different country/place. Through the struggles of keeping the relationships alive, Isaac also explores self-discovery, longing, loneliness and obviously...love.

The story is told in a truly heart wrenching way. The pain in letting go of a lover is frightening, and trying to maintain a long-distance relationship is borderline impossible. We are witnessing Isaac's attempts at trying to find his own peace and happiness, but he's incapable of finding it without his love. The concept of the album is undeniably an effective tearjerker, that is even more impactful because of the emotional performances of the band members.

Isaac's writing is immaculate. He has the ability to create complex metaphors and imagery. Although it may seem like some of the lyrics are referring to a certain theme, at times there are many more layers and meanings within the lyrics. However, he manages to express his specific emotions in his writing, despite its complex nature and at times even absurdity. The lyrics are often very relatable and touching, which adds another emotional punch to the album.

He also knows how to take a relatively simple subject, and turn it into a multi- meaning metaphor. Take the crumbling bread on the track Bread Song. Bread crumbs in bed is something quite relatable and simple, that happens on a daily basis, but Isaac uses it to create a double meaning metaphor. The first meaning is that the crumbling bread simply represents their crumbling relationship, and the other meaning is that each bread crumb represents one layer of each one's personality. There is a desire from the narrator to open up, therefore the crumbling bread, but the other person tells him "This place is not for any man Nor particles of bread", which means she is rejecting his intimacy.

The album is amazingly consistent from front to back as well. I can't think of a track or even an instrumental layer that I don't like. Although there are many highlights throughout it such as Concorde, Haldern, The Place Where He Inserted the Blade and Snow Globes, my favorite has to be the breathtaking closer Basketball Shoes. Probably one of my favorite songs of all time, and the first written song on the album, that was the blueprint for the album thematically.

Overall, Ants From Up There is a larger than life modern classic by one of the most promising and thrilling up and coming bands today. An overwhelming experience full of some of the most impactful performances of the decade.

Favorite: N/A
least favorite: N/A