Black Country, New Road release their third studio album
Buy Now“Forever Howlong” is the band’s first studio release since 2022’s UK #3 album “Ants From Up There”, which gave them their second Top 5 UK album in 12 months alongside their Mercury Prize shortlisted debut “For the first time”, and follows 2023’s “Live at Bush Hall”, an album The Guardian claimed was a “magical resurgence” in a triumphant five-star review. Now, on studio album three, the band have once again built from the ground up in yet another miraculous musical transformation, earning widespread critical acclaim with an Album Of The Week at The Guardian, as well as multiple five-star reviews and cover features.
The long-awaited new record was produced by James Ford (Fontaines D.C., Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, Blur) and sees Black Country, New Road settled into a new shape in which vocal duties – and most of the song writing – is split between Tyler Hyde, Georgia Ellery, and May Kershaw. The album was announced alongside it’s expansive and joyous opener “Besties“, which was met by rapturous praise from both their incredibly dedicated fans and media alike. The track was recently followed up with “Happy Birthday“. Inspired by the former single, it is a perfect example of how songs on Forever Howlong are connected in spirit and tone but still feel like very standalone pieces of work. Last week, the band also released “For the Cold Country“, the first of the singles to feature May Kershaw on lead vocal duties.
As with the songs from their “Live at Bush Hall” release, Black Country, New Road, who in 2024 sold out dates across the US earlier in the Spring and performed at Coachella, Glastonbury, Primavera, Green Man, and Pitchfork London, have been road testing material from “Forever Howlong” on stage across the year. Through fan recordings and the band’s own constant reinvention, these songs have largely taken shape in plain sight and with the full support of their international fanbase. Despite moving swiftly on after each record, and never having conventionally toured in support of a studio album, the band’s fervent following has only grown and grown regardless.
In support of the new album, the band have taken to the road again with an intimate run of UK live shows – in which they are performing the album in full to celebrate it’s release. These shows come ahead of the band’s US dates, as well as festival appearances at Pitchfork Music Festival CDMX, Primavera Sound, Paredes De Coura, Lowlands, and End Of The Road, plus a full UK / EU tour in September and October, ending on their biggest headliner yet at London’s O2 Brixton Academy. The dates come on the heels of a run of global listening parties, which saw events take place at 179 locations. Tickets are on sale now – HERE
Black Country, New Road’s ability to respond to changing circumstances is not only down to their close-knit friendship but due to their talent, adaptability and long standing relationship together as musicians. A mix of classically trained and self-taught, the multi-instrumentalists gathered steam as a band in the late 2010s, regularly playing The Windmill in Brixton alongside friends and peers such as Squid and Black Midi, and soon found themselves being labelled “the best band in the world” by The Quietus.
Here in 2025, “Forever Howlong” 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. Although hugely varied and expansive, the album also feels deeply cohesive and focused, as it takes three distinct voices and styles and seamlessly intersperses them into a new collective sound.
“Forever Howlong” is available across a range of formats; a standard 2LP on recycled black vinyl, a white label 2LP signed by the band, an Indie exclusive negative effect artworked 2LP, and both a Collector’s Edition 2LP with an alternate tracklisting in translucent eco jazz red and a Collector’s Edition Cassette, also featuring the alternate tracklisting.
STREAM/ORDER “FOREVER HOWLONG” HERE