IF WE LIKE IT, IT MUST BE GOOD!

After their surprise, the top 5 debut album, Black Country, New Road delivers a more melodic follow-up. But as guitarist Luke Mark says: "I insisted on being louder than everyone else!"

- Jenna Scaramanga

Hailed the best band "in the entire world” by one journalist, Black Country, New Road entered 2021 as a buzz band with their debut album For The First Time. Unusually for critics' darlings, they then found themselves selling more records than expected. As the UK's experimental indie scene gatecrashed the mainstream, BC, NR joined Squid and Black Midi at its forefront.

"It's crazy to chart with an album like that and to get any kind of nod from outside indie circles," admits guitarist Luke Mark. “The response was amazing. You go see Black Midi a few years ago and there'd be fifty people who loved it. After they put an album out, you go see them and there's like a thousand people who all love it just as much. You don't think it has that reach until it happens. Through the summer we did some festival shows and were very surprised at the size of them. We expected the Wide Awake Festival to be small but it was ten thousand people, a celebration of our scene. It was very odd to be playing on the main stage."

Vocalist/guitarist Isaac Wood once joked that BC, NR would be "the next Arcade Fire". It's a quip that might have backfired as the band drops its more accessible second album, Ants From Up There. "We do love Arcade Fire,” Luke says, “but It was just a funny idea. Now it seems slightly cynical because the first album was surprisingly popular. Ants From Up There may from the outside seem like some bid for pop stardom, but it's just how the songs worked out. From our point of view, it was more of a risk than a safe bet because all of the people who like the first album could very easily not like this.”