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Mar 12, 2021For the first time is usually nonsensical, frequently transcendent, and compulsively listenable. Everything that sprung to mind is on the wax here, but BC, NR don’t forget to make it catchy and groovy. In nailing that balance, they’ve given us the year’s first capital-G Great record.
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Feb 9, 2021Their portentous crescendos and surges of Jewish klezmer music set the pace, making post-rock sound improbably carnivalesque. That none of their experiments feel gimmicky speaks to a diverse and inquisitive musicianship.
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Feb 8, 2021If the interplay between the band’s instruments makes gleeful mincemeat of genre, singing guitarist Isaac Wood’s equally remarkable lyrics regularly float to the top of the mix. Half-spoken, half-sung, they riff on granular scene references (“I told you I loved you in front of Black Midi”) and Gen-Z witticisms, but pack in plenty of timeless tenderness and anomie.
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Feb 5, 2021For the First Time maintains a well-tempered intensity refined in its delivery but honest in its angst. Black Country, New Road show us what a "rock band" or "rock outfit" can achieve on their debut. For those bands labeled as experimental, we now have an expectation and a new benchmark.
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Feb 5, 2021Occasionally the vocals (and the constant name-dropping) become overbearing, but the musicianship is strong and adventurous, taking familiar instrumentation in unexpected directions, and Black Country, New Road are undeniably original.
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Feb 5, 2021A record that far surpasses the necessity of any and all comparisons. With their highly-anticipated record, this ballistic band birthed from the Brixton Windmill have constructed their own world, where self-abnegation abounds and anxiety festers, yet experimental ingenuity shines a light through all its darkness.
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Feb 5, 2021Black Country, New Road showcases immense disregard for standard musical structures and an affinity for shrieking, discordant noise. Unlike their peers, they rely less frequently on jolting stops and starts, instead relying on gradual jazz and post-rock buildups.
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Feb 5, 2021They delivered neither a classic nor an embarrassing flop that revealed them as a flavour-of-the-week fancy, but just a pretty good album with room to improve.
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Feb 4, 2021Their peak may be years away yet, but this is still some of the most exciting music you’ll hear until then; I’m not sure what more you could ask of a debut.
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Feb 4, 2021It just feels tedious and predictable. Portentous twangs of guitar? Tick. Shivery percussion? Tick. Screeches of feedback? Tick. A frontman who delivers lyrics (rambling prose) in a croaky, squawking gasp that recalls Mark E Smith? Tick.
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Feb 4, 2021Black Country, New Road are no gods, but this inventive and likeable album should earn them a million or so disciples.
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Feb 4, 2021Black Country, New Road’s seriousness and determined intellectualism is sometimes to their detriment.
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Feb 2, 2021The meshing of classically trained and self-taught players adds depth to the band's sound, creating a unique concoction of precise technical skill and raw, almost primal passion, leading to an unpredictable instrumental delight.
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Feb 1, 2021A product of its time, it will unsettle and confuse you, and there are even moments that feel poignant. That is why they will be remembered as an important band, and this album a significant milestone in modern guitar music.
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MojoFeb 1, 2021The young seven-piece have since progressed at warp-speed, here passing the full-length test with confidence. [Mar 2021, p.90]
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Feb 1, 2021For The First Time is ferocious and endlessly intelligent, highly considered and wildly improvised, eked out with bristling tension and set alight with a burning intensity and a knowing smile.
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UncutFeb 1, 2021You'll be hard pushed to find a more adventurously self-assured debut this year. [Mar 2021, p.27]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 70 out of 77
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Mixed: 5 out of 77
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Negative: 2 out of 77
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Feb 9, 2021May not be for everyone, but it is creative, original and honest. That is always a victory.
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Feb 7, 2021
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Feb 5, 2021