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It’s been a whirlwind half-decade for Black Country, New Road. The London art-rock ensemble quickly rose to prominence in 2020 with a few early singles, then released two staggering albums almost exactly a year apart, 2021’s For The First Time and 2022’s Ants From Up There. Days before the second record came out, frontman Isaac Wood left the band, citing mental health concerns.
Wood’s dramatic bellow and wildly expressive lyrics had been central to Black Country’s appeal, but the band retooled itself as more of a collective with rotating singer-songwriter duties and emerged triumphant. Within a few months, they were touring with an entirely new set of songs. The road trip culminated in last year’s hometown-recorded Live At Bush Hall, which essentially functioned as Black Country, New Road LP3.
They’re back on tour now, and they’ve been performing new material. Monday at Bandai Namco Dream Hall in Shanghai, someone captured footage of three unreleased songs, “For The Cold Country,” “Socks,” and “Geese.” These were not live debuts — “For The Cold Country” was first performed last year, while “Socks” debuted a week ago in Seoul, where “Geese” returned to the setlist for the first time since 2022 — but they do represent some high-quality documentation of the new and resurrected tunes. All three songs continue the precious, ambitious tendencies of the Live At Bush Hall era, a sound that reminds me of 2000s blog-rock combos and Joanna Newsom, among other touchpoints.
Watch below.