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

Ants From Up There (AFUT) is my Album Of The Year. I feel like Black Country, New Road (BCNR) have a MASERPIECE on their hands. My first reaction to it blew me away, and AFUT continues to blow me away. Here is a review/breakdown/video essay on the album!
TWITTER: / antoniorunaway
AOTY PAGE: www.albumofthe...

[@AntonioRunaway]

SUBSCRIBE

[@fanetravieso]

just did

[@KenshinMizuhara]

No

[@lennythelizard9790]

i cannot overstate how heavily this album has impacted my life

[@AntonioRunaway]

Same

[@chairman96]

Same

[@brianemerson889]

probably getting a tattoo related to it soon

[@ZincCrossknee]

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

[@AntonioRunaway]

I agree!

[@thomasbentley_youtube]

I know I’m late to this comment but 100% agree. Seems like this album in particular has a bit of a cult following already, and I can really see people coming back to this for years. Rock solid piece of art.

[@gabrielmontanhole]

life-changing timeless album

[@AntonioRunaway]

Nothing but the truth!

[@ethand.5506]

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

[@AntonioRunaway]

Yup

[@alexf7377]

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.

[@AntonioRunaway]

Well said!

[@carterwood533]

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

[@AntonioRunaway]

Could be!

[@ivexzyy2833]

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.

[@AntonioRunaway]

Yup, amazing album

[@dylanseay]

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

[@AntonioRunaway]

Thank you! I spent a lot of time making this!

[@dylanseay]

@@AntonioRunaway Trust me bro all that time absolutely paid off!

[@agony7851]

Really a fascinating album, great review!

[@AntonioRunaway]

Thank you!

[@antonioo8625]

Top 3 album this year

[@AntonioRunaway]

TOP 1**

[@KindagoodAtguitar]

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

[@AntonioRunaway]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@doctordog2048]

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.

[@AntonioRunaway]

I agree with everything!

[@masonmcfarlane9991]

AOTY

[@AntonioRunaway]

W

[@joshj812]

Now this is real music.

[@AntonioRunaway]

It is indeed

[@crazyheadned]

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.

[@AntonioRunaway]

Thanks!

[@michaelcarrig627]

This reminds me of when Arcade Fire got big. It isn't my thing, but I am glad that everyone takes so much joy from the album.

[@AntonioRunaway]

Damn, do you not enjoy Arcade Fire?

[@michaelcarrig627]

@@AntonioRunaway Not what I heard 12-15 years ago, I would have to do a deep dive to tell you anything definitive. I just can't do twee (in the case of Arcade Fire). Since writing this comment, I went and listened to Black Country, New Road's previous album from 2021 and I like that much more. I get that some people enjoy their melodrama, but I prefer their abstraction.

[@bigdog6780]

thumbnail go crazy mane

[@AntonioRunaway]

Fr mane

[@emajorchord7064]

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

[@AntonioRunaway]

Ur spitting facts

[@vick207]

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

[@AntonioRunaway]

Oh damn, pretty cool!

[@kylepaulsen5250]

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.

[@AntonioRunaway]

Could be!

[@tylerhaas14]

I just realized Isaac looks a lot like Frodo

[@AntonioRunaway]

LMAO

[@yousofalmghari2787]

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."

[@AntonioRunaway]

Spitting

[@yousofalmghari2787]

​@@AntonioRunaway for more of the context Intro and CSM sets up the world and the beginning if the story Concorde is about the concorde plane Breadsong is them begging the boy to stop GWH is the ants losing their loved ones Haldern and Mark's theme is them being hopeless TPWHITS is where they found the plane and navigated to their old home Snowglobes is the climax of the song, which is them realizing that everything is gone And basketball shoes ends off with them laying down on their messy flooded home.

[@dabricio]

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

[@AntonioRunaway]

Oh nice!

[@reizan1289]

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.

[@AntonioRunaway]

Nice!!

[@DominicGone]

Review Midhouse self titled ?

[@ladyoftheratking7801]

No one is doing it like my guy here

[@AntonioRunaway]

Thank you!

[@alexf7377]

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.

[@curly_wyn]

Yep!

[@AntonioRunaway]

Yep!

[@J4MIE]

great video!

[@AntonioRunaway]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@skaf3413]

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

[@skaf3413]

And when you listen to it with this in mind the comparison between a person and religion that you depend on, all the lyrics then seem to just discuss what it means to depend. On someone you cannot get, a God we cannot see, a person you cannot touch and so on. It leaves you with an extremely lonely feeling, and I love it ha ha. Sorry for writing so much, I just fucking love this album.

[@AntonioRunaway]

Pretty cool analysis!

[@leonardosilvestri5385]

Bro U underrated the album

[@AntonioRunaway]

I literally have it as a 10.

[@justanormaldude295]

W

[@AntonioRunaway]

W

[@hug21]

hellfire better but its close

[@AntonioRunaway]

I dont think so lol

[@vick207]

@@AntonioRunaway Hellfire rocks tho

[@curly_wyn]

black midi are overrated asf. Hellfire is WAY too inaccessible.

[@AntonioRunaway]

@@vick207 True

[@mocapcow2933]

@@vick207feel like I wasn’t blown away by hellfire, while I was blown away by a lot in ants from up there.

[@nationalfinkgamng]

bamstekball shoes

[@AntonioRunaway]

Konkord

[@nationalfinkgamng]

@@AntonioRunaway bred snog

[@fettywapsmissingeye]

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

[@AntonioRunaway]

Damn

[@fettywapsmissingeye]

@@AntonioRunaway fr. I want to like it but it won’t click

[@vick207]

May I ask why you dislike it?

[@Aa-dn1oq]

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.

[@AntonioRunaway]

Damn, hope it grows on you!

[@geographynonsensical5003]

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

[@AntonioRunaway]

How?!??!?

[@geographynonsensical5003]

@@AntonioRunaway idk bro just the vocals are too quiet i cant hear what they say

[@hug21]

@@geographynonsensical5003 the vocal is anything but quiet bro 😭😭

[@mocapcow2933]

@@hug21I do NOT want to recommend by bro Shoegaze. He would hate that shit.

[@syrusaslam833]

W

[@AntonioRunaway]

W