Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There FIRST REACTION 

The cacophony in snow globes is so cinematic to me. It always paints the picture of a snowstorm in my mind like nothing else would.

"Show me another rock band who've made the Saxophone a core part of their identity and I'll eat my shoe" There's actually been somewhat of a rise in alternative rock incorporating jazz instrumentation in recent years, bands like BCNR, Black Midi, Squid, Maruja have carved their own little niche in the current UK music scene. I'm sure there's more I'm not aware of, as well as the US doing it's own similarly out there thing in its own way.

I really think this is one of those albums that will be looked back on as a cult classic decades from now. My favorites are probably Bread Song and The Place Where He Inserted The Blade but they're all kind of masterpieces. I really love Haldern, Good Will Hunting and Basketball Shoes too. It's hard not to just list every track as a highlight and I don't really have a least favorite. I don't usually rate albums in numbers but to me this feels like what I think a 10/10 should feel like, it's just written and recorded perfectly for what it is and it sounds phenomenal.

great reaction!! you should react to their first album "for the first time" which is way more cold and influenced by post rock. Then after "ants from up there" the lead singer and writer Isaac Wood left the band for mental health reasons and now the other six members find a completely new style that you can check in their live album "live at bush hall" with new songs written by four of the six members!

Concorde and Place Inserted can drive me to tears in the right context, sometimes I'd even skip over those songs because I just didn't want to be in that mood. Not that they're bad songs, but they're so good at what they try to convey that it's painful for me to experience those emotions sometimes

Wow, experiencing this band for the first time with you. What an experience, thank you

I know its really different from this band, but you asked for a band that uses a lot of saxophones, so i recommend you listen to Black midi, specially one of their last two albums And fun fact, both bands are friends, they have made a lot of gigs together too

Night walk, although they don’t have their lead singer anymore. The band just did a new episode of “what’s in my bag?” And the piano player May is there. She’s so elegantly spoken, classically trained, in love with Joanna Newsom, and you can just tell she’s super super talented, as is the rest of the band. She just seems to stand out. Her song Turbines/Pigs is other worldly.

i’ve been following bcnr since their debut and this album completely blew me away. one of my favorites ever

Squid and Black Midi will make you eat your shoe

41:20 if you are in a particularly shoe eating mood, I'd give a huge recommendation to maruja especially their 2023 ep Knocknarea. It's like an Art Rock Post Punk outfit with passionate vocals driving angular riffs and beautiful and/or hard hitting saxophone passages.

Hey it’s the guy that requested this! Glad you enjoyed most of it. Per usual, always appreciate your analysis :)

I've always preferred black midi from this music scene but this album is definitely a modern classic.

YES!!!! BCNR is my favorite band with QotSA, super glad to see you listening to it

can't recommend their debut and Black Midi's Hellfire enough my dude

41:06 "i gotta imagine seeing this live is gotta be a..." oh buddy... :(

Hey! When it comes out (26 January) listen to "The Smile" second album and react to it! I have had the lucky opportunity to listen to it already, and I can say: Holy crap! Best Radiohead-related album since at least In Rainbows!

BCNR friends forever ❤

You should ABSOLUTELY react to Car Seat Headrest! My personal recommendations would be Twin Fantasy (Face to Face) and Teen Denial albums

Snow Globes is a real post rock track. A lot of tracks on the album are post rock-y, but this one requires serious patience due to the lack of switchups and instead just focusing on a gradual build. I do like it, though it is quite a bit different from the others. The drums are also really something lol. My favorite thing about it is the concept of the song and how it ties in musically. It starts off stationary like an unshaken snow globe, later in the track when the drums become really chaotic is when the snow globe gets shaken, and then the more propulsive outro is when the snow flakes gracefully fall back down to the bottom of the globe.

This album is just pure beauty, love it so much. The music just paints such a pretty soundscape!

You should listen to for the first time their debut it's amazing and very different

you put into words so many feelings around this album that i havent been able to quantify, even through listening consistently since release, great review!

Dawg i am still waiting for neuteal milk hotel album reaction to drop

Snow Globes is perhaps my favorite song of the decade. Funny how we fall so differently on it.

If you haven’t heard it, and liked this album, Twin Fantasy is an absolute must, would make for a very good reaction

I have never been so pumped after listening to an album as when i yelled "yes!" out loud multiple times in my car the moment basketball shoes ended the first time I listened to it

A lot of people don’t connect with Snow Globes, but it was my favorite the first time I heard this album. The whole song is built around how we’re responsible for our emotions, and he belts that refrain over a growing crescendo of discordant percussion, like trying to get a grip on your emotions as they’re rising in your throat. It’s owning the emotion that’s been trembling in his voice for the whole album, saying “only I can make these storms end,” just before the emotional resolution of the album. Brilliant, couldn’t have the album without it

HELL YEAAA it was so sick that you loved this

I love this album, glad you reacted to it.

my favorite album ❤ so cool to see you react to it

oh wow i didn’t expect you to react to this one

Truly a once in a lifetime record. Will never happen again.

Qué increíble reacción. Sentí que re-descubrí el album. Nuevo sub. Ahora escucha For The First Time. Te va a volar la cabeza.

I understand not liking the drums on the track tho. They are chaotic and dissonant and loud and could be distracting. But for me, Snowglobes is one of the best songs on the album. Those drums are genius and add an energy I've never heard added by drums in music before. And the way instruments are melodic themes keep getting added. And then that octave jump from the vocalist... GODDAMN, SO CATHARTIC!!! Maybe try nodding along to the pulse of that song and continue even when the drums are there. The way it just keeps building and building, then coming down... And the way drums are utilized to do so and to add tension... Never heard anything like it in my life. My favs are Bread Song, Snowglobes, and Basketball Shoes.

This album took over a year for me to like it, im curious about what you will think

Snow Globes just seems to be a song that either works or doesn't work for you. It absolutely works for me, and the drums are definitely what make that song for me. I don't find them distracting at all, and I think they just elevate the emotions of all the other instruments and especially Issac's vocal performance. The song would just feel incomplete without them in my opinion. If you haven't listened to it already, the I would love to see a reaction Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins down the road. It grew on me massively since I first heard it, and it's one of all-time favorites now. It's so full of little intricacies and fun moments that add up into an incredibly fun experience.

This band is exemplified by the meme: play 6 minutes of a 7/8 guitar riff and say shit like “I remember when we fucked against my sonic youth poster/your dad stood in line at Tesco for a toasted”, and then start blaring every horn you can find at the 4 minute mark and post punk fans will be like “this literally feels like I am witnessing the construction of the pyramids of Giza”. And we love it.

The Place Where He Inserted the Blade - quite simply the song of the year. Incredible.

Best album of the 2020s so far. Hellfire comes in at a close 2nd, but this is just phenomenal. An instant cult classic

React to the new The Smile album "Wall of Eyes"! I'm really interested to hear your thoughts on some of the songs, "Bending Hectic" especially.

would highly recommend anyone who listens to this album to listen to the live version of basketball shoes, adds a whole other level of

Okay so by default now you gotta do a black midi album reaction.

For me it's the best album of the decade so far! Incredible and already timeless record.

marks theme is dedicated to the saxophone players uncle who unfortunately passed due to covid.. really beautiful song

You should react to black midi's 'Hellfire' album.

first person who I've ever heard mention Kingdom Hearts with this album, but I feel the Ethos of the album is so close to Yoko Shimomura's vision of music. It's a bizarre knowledge of beauty they have.

My favourite album of all time

Bro said "holy crapamoley"

twin fantasy!

Do the Cocteau Twin's Heaven or Las Vegas next and Car seat headrest's Twin Fantasy next

U definitely should react to Squid- Bright Green Field....

there's a piano only version of haldern on youtube !! it's so beautiful ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1yP8fpvvXBc.html )

41:30 Maruja. Inspired by BCNR no doubt. Saxophone being integrated into a 4 piece rock band though is not a bad thing imo lol. Check out Kakistocracy by then.

Are you gonna react to the new The Smile album? It's one of the best Radiohead related things in years, better than the first Smile album, it's brilliant.

Gotta react to Cub by Wunderhorse next

I think you should react to Pendulum. They are absolutely mental 👌👌

Idk if anyone commented but look up Haldern Piano Version and you’d be very happy

Can you react to a band called the warning next?

The smile have realeased a new album called wall of eyes

You should react on what you want instead of catering to your audience. It'll be more fun to make youtube vids and i'm sure your audience that decides to tune in will appreciate the new experiences

Fun fact: they recorded the album live at a house and then added the vocals after

i think you should listen to xiu xiu to ruin your life :D

I miss Isaac. I mean clearly he had good reasons for needing to leave the band to focus on his mental health, but his vocals are raw and unpolished to show his true emotions while singing.

I have to agree, Snowglobes is the only meh song for me on this album, which is a shame. It's just too weird. And it's the same chords over and over. The rest of the album is a masterpiece. First album is even better though, like I said. Hope you react to it too.

Came here only to hear the snow globes reaction, their masterpiece. What a let down 😂

Their debut "For The First Time" is even better in my opinion. More experimental, heavier guitars.

I think you'll shit your pants if you listen to Hellfire

The first album I've seen you react to that's made by musicians that actually are competent. I like black midi more though, which is kinda similar. Great video!

I've never met someone that hates vidotape and snowglobes too... he's so me...

Did you buy those glasses and nose at a joke shop?

Oh yeah, the best album of all time. Gaddamn mastapeece 🤌 Anyway in all seriousness, I don’t think I’ve connected this emotionally with a band in a long time. I heard their first album 'For The First Time' and fell in love immediately. When the singles were coming out for this album, I was so unbelievably hyped. I preordered the vinyl. On release, I took it home and listened to the vinyl with headphones on. A fantastic experience to be sure, but it didn’t really resonate with me like their first project did. I felt a little disappointed. However, I kept listening to it, over and over again, peeling back the layers. The dense instrumentation, the obscure lyrics, I kept finding more aspects I liked about it. Then one day, I cried at almost every song. The emotions hit my core. All the hardships I went through with family and romantic relationships, feeling stuck in life, felt realised through Isaac’s lyrics. I adore this album, and I’m so happy you covered it and loved it too! I’d highly recommend their other albums, I love their first almost as much as AFUT, and Live at Bush Hall is absolutely stellar. I’d love a reaction to these but no pressure! ❤️