Review Summary: Black Country, New Road marry klezmer and post-rock in a debut album that's at its strongest when the klezmer half of this equation is given more room to breathe.
After plenty of hype, the debut album from UK-based septet Black Country, New Road is here. The band have been compared (mostly) to Slint, for three main reasons: 1) they use spoken-word vocals, 2) they're categorisable as 'post-rock' and 3) they have a similar-ish clean guitar sound, aided in no small part by the fact that frontman Isaac Wood uses a Strat (like Slint's David Pajo). Otherwise, such comparisons are a little off the mark, since BCNR's expanded lineup means it can go beyond the basic guitar-bass-drums setup and use violins and saxophones.
These preliminaries aside, it can be said that For the first time is a good debut album, but hardly the classic it might have been. It's at its strongest when the band play up their klezmer and jazz influences, such as on the excellent opening and closing tracks. It's during such moments that BCNR sound not only more distinctive and original, but also more powerful and dynamic. Conversely, a cynic could simply dismiss other cuts as longer-form post-punk with some decoration throw on top.
That would be a little harsh, since Wood's lyrics do an engaging job of depicting our current media-fixated consumer culture, while most pieces ebb and flow nicely towards fairly satisfying climaxes. It's a promising debut, if not a truly impressive one.
