Listening to Black Country, New Road’s Forever Howlong feels a bit like wandering into a play halfway through — the costumes are nice, the set is lovely, but the emotional thread is trapped somewhere backstage. Without vocalist Isaac Wood at the helm (who left the band due to mental health issues in 2022), Black Country, New Road seem determined to reinvent themselves. But in doing so, they’ve misplaced the very tension and barely-contained chaos that once made their music magnetic and memorable.
We now have vocalist/multi-instrumentalists, Tyler Hyde, Georgia Ellery (one half of Jockstrap), and May Kershaw, taking shared vocal duties and leaning into more baroque-pop and indie-folk influences—instead of the revered post-punk vibe of Ants From Up There. At times, this new one sounds like a tired Regina Spektor or a discount Joanna Newsom. This new sound, which has moments of instrumental flourishes that feel like all the players running and trying to get their moment, feels more childlike, full of whimsy and hope, and it’s not what I’m looking for. Remember when BCNR sounded like a group of gifted weirdos on the verge of a collective breakdown? Forever Howlong is not that. It’s the musical equivalent of a group hug after everyone forgot why they were mad in the first place.
Tracks like “The Big Spin” and “Two Sisters” are full of quaint melodies, shy harmonies, and the lingering aroma of ambition, all abandoned at the coat check. “Besties” and “Salem Sisters” feel like the musical equivalent of a “hang in there” kitten posters. There’s no frenzy here. No danger. Just six conservatory kids, really good at their instruments, politely strumming their way through their feelings, sounding less like a band and more like a very emotionally, half-baked Renaissance fair.
There are moments — brief ones — when the old BCNR glimmers through. You hear a little tension trying to claw its way out on “For the Cold Country,” or “Nancy Tries To Take The Night,” but the band quickly tucks it back under a doily and offers you another cup of lukewarm tea. It’s all very tasteful, very restrained, very… boring. There’s just no angst left, nothing close to songs like “Chaos Space Marine,” or “The Place Where He Inserted The Blade.” Without Wood’s voice — all cracked nerves and disaster — the songs feel less like cries for help and more like diary entries left under a pillow.
Forever Howlong is the sound of a band terrified of offending themselves, even though they may have offended fans of their older material. If your singer, the very vocal blood of your band, decides to leave and you as a collective decide to release new material under the same name, maybe abandoning the very reason why many felt a passionate pull to the band, is not the right decision… Album contracts be damned, either have some echo of Wood’s vocal style, or start anew and call it White Country, Old Road.
If you liked Black Country, New Road for their teeth, their sweat, their ability to fall apart mid-song and make you feel —that’s all gone. Forever Howlong will leave you longing for anything to remind you that they were once alive.
