Ants from Up There

Ants from Up There will be Black Country, New Road's second release, following their 2021 debut For the First Time. Ants from Up There was announced on 12 October 2021 alongside the release of the album's first single, "Chaos Space Marine", which the band's frontman, Isaac Wood, described as "the best song [they have] ever written".[2] The song derived its name from the eponymous miniature figurines in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise.[3]

On 2 November, the band released "Bread Song" as the second single. The song's instrumentational style was inspired by Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, wherein the band were to play without definitive timing and cues.[4] As a result, "Bread Song" is more atmospheric than "Chaos Space Marine".[5]

A third single, "Concorde", was released on 30 November 2021 as the album's third single.[6] In an interview with Consequence, the band said that they used the Mandolin to give the song "unpredictability" and "a snappy and spiky element".[7]

Other songs from the album's tracklist had been performed live prior to the release of the album. "Haldern" was first performed as a part of an improv jam at the Haldern Pop Festival 2020. The song "Mark's Theme", written by Evans in dedication to his uncle who died of COVID-19, was first debuted on at their Queen Elizabeth Hall concert on 6 March 2021. Several other songs, including "Good Will Hunting", "Concorde", "Chaos Space Marine", and "The Place Where He Inserted The Blade" were performed in 2020 during the band's social distanced tour throughout the UK and Europe in support of For the First Time.