Black Country, New Road - Live at Bush Hall Review
After a year of listening to various handheld recordings, fans will now have a concrete audio file to stream as Black Country, New Road's hotly anticipated follow up album, Live At Bush Hall is here.
Following the sad departure of Isaac Wood last year, Black Country, New Road as we knew it, was no more. For the remainder of 2022, the band adapted to the challenge of continuing as a six piece, testing out new material at a mixture of festivals and their own shows. The crowd selling out the stalls, regardless of what musical offerings were presented. Three of those sold out gigs were at West London’s Bush Hall, the events serving as a recording environment for both a concert film and their latest audio release. The vocal responsibilities Isaac left are now shared between bassist Tyler Hyde, flautist / saxophonist Lewis Evans and keys player May Kershaw.
Up Song, the opening track from the album is a fresh burst of a sunnier sound, celebrating Wood's friendship and life with the band. It's a far cry from the heavier previous releases like Opus or Sunglasses. And feels closer to the Funeral (Arcade Fire) direction, Ant's from Up There was heading towards. Tyler Hyde steers the track with her quivering vocals, devoted fans could call this a promising start, skeptics could find themselves cringing at the “Look at what we did together/ BC,NR friends forever”, line.
The chaptered track, The Boy, follows with keys player, May Kershaw now singing lead. Its witchy lyrics are again, a different direction from previous releases, but the track still manages to showcase the band’s dynamic range of instrumentation and captivating vocals that they are known for.
The latter half of I Won’t Always Love You is one of the stronger parts of the album. It’s Radiohead influenced guitar and song structure keeps you engaged until the final notes.
Turbine’s / Pigs also deserves a special mention as a strength on the record. The rawness and the weight of its piercing beauty blankets you. Kershaw’s delicate river of piano playing accompanied with her earthy lyrics could anchor you even in the choppiest of seas. The track’s purgative ending dares to compete with previous songs like ‘Basketball Shoes.’
The more feeble, flatter parts of the album fall where Evans takes on the vocals. His singing style doesn't quite match the complexity of the music behind him. His attempts at humour and emotional expression fall short in tracks like Across the Pond Friend and The Wrong Trousers. Although Evans doesn’t take lead vocals on the majority of the album, his contributions (that are karaoke like in places) cause a big blow and are a disservice to the band’s legacy. In these tracks its evermore apparent that the band's current music lacks the unique blend of smirky social commentary and emotional depth that accelerated the spread of their fanbase in the first place and made Black Country, New Road such an exciting band to follow.
Sung by Hyde, the penultimate track, Dancers, is a good attempt to salvage and end on impact. It’s anthemic repetition is catchy and the structure feels fully formed.
Live At Bush Hill paints BC,NR as a resilient yet wounded soldier, missing a limb, stumbling up the foothills. Their cult following acting as the crutches. Their critics now dubious of their future. Will they ever touch the high bar For the First Time set? Will they ever make anything as cathartic as Ant’s From Up There? Could the space Isaac Wood left ever be filled?
But the real question is, are they going to perform something completely different the next time we see them?