BLACK COUNTRY NEW ROAD wsg HORSEGIRL

There are few contemporary bands who can do musical reinvention quite as consistently as Black Country, New Road. From their Mercury Music Prize-nominated debut For the First Time, which touched upon everything from jazz to post-rock via klezmer music, to the art-rock meets chamber pop follow up Ants From Up There (both top 5 charting albums). Then when singer Isaac Wood amicably left shortly after, they wrote an entire set of new songs to tour which ended up on Live at Bush Hall, an album The Guardian claimed was a “magical resurgence” in a triumphant five-star review. Now, on studio album three, the band are once again building from the ground up in yet another miraculous musical transformation. “Bush Hall was a really fun project to find our feet in,” says Charlie Wayne. “But we toured it to death and we were done with those songs. This album is a new statement of intent for us as a six-piece.” The band have now settled into a new shape in which vocal duties – and most of the songwriting – is split between Tyler Hyde, Georgia Ellery, and May Kershaw. “It created a real through line for the album, having three girls singing,” says Ellery. “It’s definitely very different to Ants From Up There, because of the female perspective – and the music we’ve made also compliments that.”