By CHAD BOSWELL
Staff Writer
On February 5th, 2021, British rock band Black Country, New Road dropped their debut record titled “For the first time” and for being their first project it was pretty good. BCNR consists of 6-7 members of the group with lead vocalist Isaac Wood being the frontman of the group. BCNR is well known for their most popular project released this year titled “Ants From Up There” which was a phenomenal project and exceeded my expectations so as I went into “For the first time” I expected it to not exceed the standards that their most recent project reached but I was definitely wrong. For the first time, it sounds a lot different than Ants from up there and holds up on its own, and definitely has some uniqueness to it. Black Country New Road is already one of the best bands of this decade after only being around since early 2021, Their style is unique and the way they construct their lyrics and song are nothing like any other band. Unfortunately, the frontman and lead vocalist announced that he was leaving the band before the release of “Ants From Up There” due to personal mental health issues but states he is forever grateful for the music BCNR has created and the fans of it.
For the first time has more of an ominous vibe to the project and it has more rock elements in it. This album is only 6 tracks long but has a surprisingly 40-minute runtime with some tracks reaching up to 9 minutes long and it’s just amazing how they can keep a song that long interesting and unique especially in this record. There is more of a Jazz element in this record like the songs “Sunglasses” and “Instrumental” but has also a slow rock melody like in the songs “Athens, France” and “Track X”. Isaac Wood obviously does a phenomenal vocal performance on this album and even after this he has proved that as a singer he is actually talented, especially during live performances.
For the first time may not live up to the standard elements they have shown in “Ants From Up There” but it does have a different style of Jazz-Rock fusion and how it is more on the obscure side of their music. For the first time is a hard-hitting album with most songs being strong guitars and heavy drums. Some of my favorite tracks from this record are “Sunglasses” and “Track X” out of all six of the songs, these two stand out the most, going from loud rock songs to slow guitar rhythm songs.
Overall I would give For the first time a 9/10, It definitely exceeded my expectations and I’m glad I got around to listening to more BCNR, and so should you.
