Forever Howlong by Black Country, New Road

Back with a new lineup, fresh sound, new writers, and new influences, Black Country, New Road marks their triumphant return to the studio with Forever Howlong, a simultaneously natural progression and radical departure from the band’s beloved past work. In one sense, the band continues here on their steady progression away from the dark, spidery post rock of For the First Time towards a neoclassical, mathy, melodic point that lies beyond the songs of Ants from up There. On the other hand, the exit of lead vocalist and lyricist Isaac Wood after Ants from up There all but guaranteed a significant shift in perspective, and the three vocalists who stepped up from within the band’s ranks have here firmly taken the creative reins and formed the sound in their own image. These tender, flowing, shimmery pieces follow narrators whose emotional vulnerability and curious open-mindedness leaves them badly burned by the world and its many scheming opportunists, an extravagant, tragic, vivid display of the loss of innocence that proves this band’s penchant for storytelling has remained despite all the changes.