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Black Country, New Road: Forever Howlong review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

After losing their frontman, the band’s third studio album shows how resilient and adaptable they are, with luscious melodies, fantastical lyrics and lots of recorders

You really don’t get a lot of whimsical Englishness in 21st-century rock and pop, and there are definitely moments during Forever Howlong when you wonder whether that’s altogether a bad thing: For the Cold Country is a tale about a knight in armour who ends up flying a kite with his own ghost, and you need a fairly high tolerance for mannered eccentricity to get through it. But if song titles including Besties, Happy Birthday and Socks suggest Black Country, New Road have lost the twitchy, angsty edge so pronounced on Ants from Up There, something more subtle is actually going on: they strike an intriguing balance between winsome imagery and darker themes. They frequently rise and fall with a noticeably show tune-like gait (as on Happy Birthday) and they’re usually luscious and captivating enough to carry you through the knottiest moments, including a section of Salem Sisters where the tempo changes with each line of vocals.

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