Black Country, New Road ‘Forever Howlong’ review: A welcome calm after the storm

“It sounds like a series of unfortunate events, our whole career!” Black Country, New Road’s Tyler Hyde told Rolling Stone UK recently. Across three albums in the same number of years, the prodigiously talented London-based band have gone through all manner of changes and tumult, rolling with the punches along the way. 

After returning as a six-piece following the departure of vocalist Isaac Wood with the 2023 live album Live at Bush Hall, new record Forever Howlong is the band’s first to be written over a prolonged period of time, without ever-changing circumstances around them. 

It’s clear to see what this relative calm and time has brought Black Country, New Road — Forever Howlong is a deeply rich and considered album that bursts with life and creativity. Live at Bush Hall saw the band step further away from their post-punk beginnings, a process that began on the indie-rock epic Ants From Up There (2022), and towards the sounds of folk, theatre and beyond. 

These sounds are taken further on Forever Howlong, an album that feels like Black Country, New Road’s first that doesn’t try to reinvent their own wheel. The outro of the huge ‘For the Cold Country’ contains the type of squealing horns that defined debut album For the First Time, while another six-minute-plus epic, ‘Nancy Tries to Take the Night’, feels closest to the sound debuted on Ants From Up There. In slowing down and finding solid ground, the band have been able to take a bird’s-eye view of their career and their sound, picking and choosing what to bring forwards with them rather than being forced to burn it all to the ground. 

With Live at Bush Hall, the band’s bassist Hyde, keyboardist May Kershaw and saxophonist Lewis Evans took up joint vocal duties, and Hyde and Kershaw’s songs are joined here by violinist Georgia Ellery’s first songs for the band. 

The trio of the songwriters have similarities — all of their songs are grand in scale and ambitious in their composition — but still feel like three distinct voices. Ellery helms lead single and opening track ‘Besties’, a sprightly ode to female friendship, while Kershaw’s delivery and style recalls Joanna Newsom. Hyde, who has become the band’s de facto frontperson since Wood’s departure, excels when dialling up the drama on the theatrical ‘Salem Sisters’ and ‘Happy Birthday’. 

It’s most striking when they come together on ‘Mary’, a Hyde-penned song that the trio harmonise gorgeously on throughout. The three singers, and their trio of bandmates, have found a sound, a balance and a stability on Forever Howlong that can and should set them up for the long and distinguished career they deserve.