GutterPutter

Ever since 2019, Big Country, New Road is rapidly gaining popularity as being one of, if not, the most unique band to have come out of Britain purely on the back of two singles with ‘Athens, France’ & ‘Sunglasses’. With their artsy focus via incorporation of mixing both post-punk roughness & the unorthodoxy of post-rock, many have hailed the band as being a second coming of cult bands like Slint most prominently. While their contemporaries & close friends in black midi have a head start with Schlagenheim in 2019, the anticipation of the seven-piece act’s first album still remains high until just recently when For The First Time is finally out. When the hype looks to skyrocket beyond even some of the biggest names in the underground scene, it’s impossible to escape the backlash from those who would imagine the debut to be greater than in reality & it does receive complaints around the album versions of their two singles compared to the original. In my experience, For The First Time is easily one of the records this year.

The instrumental opener sets the thesis of the band’s musical direction perfectly. The gradual build-up in the crescendo between the saxophone, the synergy between the drumming & the basslines & the guitar performance makes up for one enticing introduction & the last third of the song makes up for a cathartic climax with the keyboard & the violin being thrown into the fray. The next song in ‘Athens, France’ notably sounds different from the original version but my view around it makes me lean more in favour of the album version. Isaac Wood’s lyrical focus on not learning from his mistakes alongside the distinct guitar riff & atmospheric use of the violin makes up for an enchanting track & while some may not see it as being impassioned as the original, I wager that it fits perfectly in the album. ‘Science Fair’ provides a story around a person who accidentally kills someone & runs away to a cirque where he develops a crush on a performer but his guilt on his manslaughter causes him to ‘[bolt] through the gallery’ & out of society. The stream-of-consciousness songwriting alongside the distorted playing of the guitar makes up for a rivetingly unhinged song & with an implied sense of unreliable narrator, the song is a grower to be had with its remarkable avant-garde lyrics:

The cream of the crop in the excellent album however comes with ‘Sunglasses’ – the band’s breakout hit that revolves around upper-class pretensions & our obsession with images. Starting with a minute’s worth of distorted playing of a guitar, much of the song hones in on the lengthy guitar riff & drumming pattern as Isaac’s singing concerns his worries on being more like his girlfriend’s parents with their disgruntlement of life as of recently. Although it follows through with a typical post-rock structure where it leads up to a triumphant crescendo, what follows the first instance of the refrain (‘I am so ignorant now, with all that I have learnt’) kicks the song off into nigh-classic status with its catchy guitar riff, militant drumming & the tasteful prevalence of the saxophone as Isaac’s singing edges closer to being almost a scream. The second verse drips of self-deprecating narcissism with lines like ‘you cannot touch me’ & ‘I am a surprisingly smooth talker/ And I am invincible in these sunglasses’ which I find to be exceptional when it comes to tackling one’s obsession with their self-presentation. By the time the bridge comes in, the climax finally arrives as Isaac screeches out more about the cult-like presentation of the hierarchy with ‘I’m more than adequate/ Leave Kanye out of this’ or ‘Leave my Daddy’s job out of this’ as the instrumentals crunches in to a vicious cacophony. This is my personal favourite song & it’s telling of the band’s talents with how well-cohesive it is.

‘Track X’ is the most mellow & it ponders around a romantic relationship with a repetitive sequence from most instruments alongside a melodic female voice with the chorus. Mixed with a biblical reference & a call-out to tour-mates black midi & Jerskin Fendrix, the track serves as a great contrast to ‘Sunglasses’ with its more reserved sound. Finally, the outro track in ‘Opus’ deals abstractly with a disintegration of a relationship with an arpeggio guitar & riotous horn that comes inbetween the intervals of the vocals. The contrapuntal sounds between the mania of the aforementioned instrumentals & the solemn atmosphere of the verses leads to a fascinating conclusion of the album as Isaac laments ‘What we built must fall to the rising flames’ prior to the vicious wall of saxophones, violins & drum.

Simply put, For The First Time is a near-instant masterpiece in the kaleidoscopic array that is British post-punk. Although I can see the complaints around the adjustments made to the two singles, I feel that they’re still as immaculate as ever. The other four songs is proof that the band were not incapable of pumping out songs in similar levels of competence. One can make comparisons with past acts like Slint all they want, but the truth is that there isn’t anything that’s exactly like For The First Time – not even the seminal Spiderland can be said to be similar to the album save for some guitar riffs & drumming tab. I can’t wait to see more of what Black Country, New Road has to offer & this album is definitely going to place high on my end-of-year list.