English rock group Black Country, New Road’s frosty new single is taken from their much-anticipated sophomore record, Ants From Up There, out Feb. 4.
‘Snow Globes’, Black Country, New Road’s hit track which made its live debut last year, is the fourth new single to be unveiled from their forthcoming second studio album.
The track sees the band shift between delicacy and enormity, finding them at their most potent and arresting.
Frontman Isaac Wood’s vocals carefully swing between quiet restraint and stirring zest, whilst accompanied by some of the band’s most orchestral instrumentation to date, alongside drums that develop from gentle timpani-esque ruminations into a passionate cacophony before giving way to the track’s tender and pensive refrain.
Drummer Charlie Wayne comments,
“Snow Globes was one of the songs which had existed before we wrote the majority of the songs on AFUT. Though it’s a pretty good representation of the musical world we wanted to explore on the album at large. Rather than writing a song with a number of distinct sections we wanted to see what we could do with one continuous riff. It was a real exploration in trying to create something maximalist whilst limiting ourselves with minimal musical choices.
Because the melodic instruments are all playing the riff in unison, Snow Globes left the drums with an interesting opportunity. The drums don’t sit separately from the rest of the band on Snow Globes, but we wanted to use them in a way that we hadn’t in the past. The initial idea was to feel like the drums were recorded for a completely separate track. They were meant to be totally arrhythmic and just sort of bubble below the surface – like at the end of White Ferrari. As the song progressed the drums still occupy a slightly different sound world, but because the rest of the band is playing in such a syncopated style, the drums were given a space to disregard rhythm and be completely expressive.”
‘Snow Globes’ follows three singles including ‘Concorde’ released at the start of 2022. The MV for ‘Concorde’, directed by Maxim Kelly, featured sci-fi B-movie themes.
Other singles include ‘Bread Song’, which quickly became a live favorite among fans, and ‘Chaos Space Marine’.
Black Country, New Road’s second album, Ants From Up There, is set to land almost a year to the day from the release of their debut, For the first time.
For the first time earned rave reviews including entering the shortlist for the Mercury Music Prize. The Times gave the album a 5/5 and called Black Country, New Road as one of “the most exciting bands of 2021.
Photo Credit: Rosie Foster
