Black Country, New Road have shared their new single ‘Besties’ and confirmed their new album ‘Forever Howlong’.
It comes after the band recently shared a short snippet for ‘Besties’ and teased the follow-up to ‘Ants From Up There’ using interactive billboards across London.
The new album, which has been produced by James Ford, will be released on Ninja Tune on April 4 and can be pre-ordered/pre-saved here. It will come in a variety of formats including a standard 2xLP on recycled black vinyl, a white label 2xLP signed by the band, an exclusive negative effect artworked 2xLP, a collector’s edition 2xLP with an alternate tracklisting in translucent eco jazz red and a collector’s edition cassette, also featuring the alternate tracklisting.
‘Besties’, which you can listen to below, comes accompanied with a new video which will premiere at 5pm GMT followed by a live Q&A with the band.
Speaking about the video, director Rianne White who previously worked with Young Fathers and Aurora, said: “‘Besties’ came into my world with a dance of feelings, with such an understood concept of exploring the core emotion of taking on the world, and its obstacles to be with her, the bestie, again.
“Building this with the band took me to so many memories, informed by a collective of experiences from my childhood writing letters and maps to my bestie, into formulating our own map and sliding-doors effect narrative – charged with the instinctual punch and intuition of: ‘I need to be with my bestie now’.”
White continued: “Working with Georgia [Ellery], May [Kershaw] and Tyler [Hyde] was a real treat across their performances especially, and quite literally, running from the more conventional lip-sync world, and injecting cameo moments with Charlie [Wayne], Lewis [Evans] and Luke [Mark].”
Of the new album, Ellery said: “It created a real through line for the album, having three girls singing. It’s definitely very different to ‘Ants From Up There’, because of the female perspective – and the music we’ve made also compliments that.”
A press release also added that the album is “an ambitious, meticulously detailed record that includes everything from folk to prog via baroque pop and touches of alt-rock – with nods to everything from Joanna Newsom to Randy Newman via Fiona Apple and Janis Ian – yet all the while retaining that unmistakably unique sound that only this combination of musicians can come up with.”
The band will also hit the road for a series of UK, Ireland and European tour dates kicking off on September 11 at Rock City in Nottingham before wrapping up at O2 Academy Brixton on October 31.
Pre-sale tickets can be purchased for their UK and Ireland tour by pre-ordering their new album before 3pm GMT next Tuesday (February 4) here. A code will then be sent via email and tickets can be purchased at 10am GMT the following day (February 5) here.
Tickets will go on general sale next Friday (February 7) at 10am GMT and can be purchased here.
Black Country, New Road’s UK/Ireland and European tour dates are:
SEPTEMBER
11 – Rock City – Nottingham
12 – Albert Hall – Manchester
15 – Olympia – Dublin
18 – Barrowland – Glasgow
20 – The Glasshouse – Gateshead
22 – Beacon – Bristol
24 – The Corn Exchange – Cambridge
OCTOBER
9 – Casino De Paris
10 – Stereolux – Nantes
12 – Paradiso – Amsterdam
14 – Gloria – Cologne
15 – Astra – Berlin
17 – Vega – Copenhagen
18 – Fallan – Stockholm
19 – Sentrum Scene – Oslo
21 – Mojo – Hamburg
22 – Roxy – Prague
23 – Les Docks – Lausanne
25 – Magazzini Generali – Milan
26 – Epicerie Moderne – Lyon
28 – Ancienne Belgique – Brussels
30 – Brighton Dome
31 – O2 Academy Brixton – London
Before that the band will play a host of festival dates including Primavera in Barcelona on June 7 and the End Of The Road festival in Dorset on August 31. You can purchase tickets for the latter here.
