Why "Ants From Up There" is a MASTERPIECE - ALBUM REVIEW/BREAKDOWN 

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i cannot overstate how heavily this album has impacted my life

i know its too early to call, but this album is already a classic like something people will still be praising in 20-30 years

This is album is a perfect example of what can happen when a bunch of people come together and put their all into something

life-changing timeless album

For me (in my 60's!), AFUT is the best or certainly the most resonating album since the 1970's for serious music fans. Isaac's quietly devastating poetic blank verse resonates emotionally even when you're unsure of the exact meaning, and his highly musical vocals makes you hang on to every line. Then there is the classically trained band who perform with both delicacy and power.

i think that maybe on basketball shoes it starts off with him feeling happy and positive for the first time in a while, and this eventually leads to him having a wet dream about "concorde". however, he wakes up after (which is the third part of the song) to realize it was all just a dream, and it is there he realizes he can never be normal without this person in his life

Awesome video! I’ve been waiting for this type of video on the album

Good video. But that's not the meaning of the album. Isaac Wood, speaking in an interview with Jimmy Fallon last night, revealed the true meaning of Black Country, New Road's sensational new album Ants From Up There "I don't know why you people keep mistaking this album for anything other than what it is. I thought I made it very clear when I titled this album ANTS From Up There. the album is about a colony of musical ants who were brought up worshipping a small toy figurine of the Concorde Jet which they kept inside of their ant hill. they r brought up living in fear of anything 'up there' outside of their ant hill. one day a child, out exploring, notices the Concorde Jet sticking out of the ant hill & discovers the colony of ants inside of it. the child sadistically begins to pour water over the ant hill while the ants beg for the child to stop, performing their music for the child desperately in hopes of saving their home. However, the ants were too small for the child to hear them, and the child pours water all over their colony, drowning hundreds, a small group of ants managed to survive, being picked up by the current and carried out of their home. Having lost all of their loved ones & being stuck in an unfamiliar location, the ants become depressed & hopeless. Until one day, they see a plane in the sky, remembering the concorde jet which they worshipped, they begin to follow the plane, & it eventually leads them back home. Returned to their old home, they move inside to find their home destroyed, everything theyve ever known either destroyed or swept away bt the current. They lie down inside of their flooded, empty home, surrounded by the corpses of everyone they used to know, and they remain there, lying in place, unmoving, until they eventually die just like all the others. I don't know how you all interpreted that as a break up album."

Dude fantastic work with this video, absolutely the best breakdown of this album ive seen yet!

Really a fascinating album, great review!

this is such a great timeless amazing piece of art, i cannot even put into words how much this album means to me and its only been out for a year. definitely going to be the album i play in the car on road trips with my kids with me whenever that day comes like when i would hear queen or the beatles. just a classic phenomenal album.

Top 3 album this year

AOTY

Now this is real music.

this album really had an affect on me. I first saw just how many people were praising this album and I decided to give it a listen. AND WOW. this whole project seems like each song has its own great meaning while simultainiously adding to the overaching narrative the entire album portrays. the strong energy on the chorus of good will hunting and the crescendo on basketball shoes are some of my favorite moments on the album due to it really feeling like isaac is laying his feelings out for us. This album had me shaking after it had finished and just feels like such a huge payoff. I think everyone who hasn't heard this album should, and anyone who has, should listen to it each time with with a different mindset. this album will surely be a classic for many years to come. An instant 10/10.

thumbnail go crazy mane

Hit it, nail on the fucking head bro. Watchwd and heard almost too many opinions on this album and the band (with Isaac) and you've said just the right amount to get somone right in there, in the deep end. Only issue is, think they'd have to listen to AFUT before your vid as if any of the feeling of any of these songs were spoiled for me before my first time, fists would be thrown. Well done, truly.

great video!

One of the best albums of all time. My first 10 since Punisher in 2020

Aoty aoty aoty oh my god I love it so much basketball shoes is like the best song ever made

I look at the charli line as him moving on from his previous lover. In place he inserted the blade isaac states he can only think of his lover when he tries to make lunch (love). In basketball shoes he does though. Supposedly unintentional in a wet dream he thinks of charli xcx instead. And the fact that this is the first sign of him able to move on but also that it means that he finally is losing his love and letting go. To me there is so many emotions that come just from this. Shame just because its a wet dream. Sorrow, realizing that the separation between him and his lover is happening and he is disconnecting. But also joy, knowing he will be okay and able to move on and make lunch without her.

Great fucking album, my favorite of the year. Makes me feel less alone. Also I think that basketball shoes could be about a wet dream but not precisely about Charli XCX. Maybe it's about this person he's trying to forget. Think about it this way: The first section of the song talks about how Isaac is doing and carrying on without this person in his life, the second one looks like he's dreaming about the person he loves and the third one is him waking up and realizing it was all a dream. PS: Also if you notice basketball shoes revolves all around one musical idea, which is the intro of the album. I think that gives cohesion to the whole thing and it's really cool

Yep!

I just realized Isaac looks a lot like Frodo

I've heard of BCNR since Sunglasses in 2019, it's cool to see others enjoy them too now! This album is the most refined their sound has ever been and it's honestly just dreamlike. Top 5 favorite albums of all time for me.

No one is doing it like my guy here

Bro U underrated the album

Disappointed that you only gave this one 10/10. It's perhaps odd to say given than the average age of the band was 22, but boomers really need to hear this album. Surely they can't spend the rest of their lives listening to music made more than 50 years ago. This is one for the ages.

What about all the themes of religion, criticizing it and comparing it to how you depend on another person in a relationship? And how modern alienation is explored in the album. “And every phone died then, And no on had Wifi inside your apartment, So we knelt at your alter” The comparison between the relationship and religion and how he depends on it to not get lost in this modern world, is amazing and I love it. And the “she had Billie Eilish style” line and others like it show how she had become a product of the modern world that alienates him. To me that perspective on the album is a whole other gut punch. Best album to come out this year. Great video btw

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bamstekball shoes

hellfire better but its close

I’ve tried so many times but I hate this album

I feel genuinely insane as apparently the single person that was disappointed by this album coming off their debut. For the First Time showed a band with such a diverse voice in terms of their musicianship, but every song on this album felt like it was recorded in the same session, iterating upon itself until it all sounds the same. Or maybe im just crazy either is possible.

everyone saying its amazing but im just here thinking this album is boring as hell

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