Watch Black Country, New Road cover Billie Eilish’s ‘Happier Than Ever’

The six-piece performed the track during their current US tour

Black Country, New Road have covered Billie Eilish‘s song ‘Happier Than Ever’ during a recent show on their current US tour.

The rock band performed the track — the title track from Eilish’s 2021 album — at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom yesterday (September 5), adding new elements to the part-sombre, part-thunderous rendition.

BCNR violinist Georgia Ellery introduces classical strings to the lullaby-like intro, before drummer Charlie Wayne belts out the song’s punk-pop latter half, with vocal assists from the rest of the band as they mosh on stage. The cover elsewhere enlists keys from May Kershaw and saxophone riffs courtesy of Lewis Evans. Watch that below:

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BCNR’s cover adds to a similar name check of the pop star within the lyrics of their song ‘Good Will Hunting’. Referencing Eilish on the chorus of the track, which was released as part of the band’s 2022 album ‘Ants from Up There’, former vocalist Isaac Wood sings: “She had Billie Eilish style / Moving to Berlin for a little while”.

Black Country, New Road are currently on tour in US, performing all-new tracks not heard on ‘Ants from Up There’. The tour completed its European and UK legs earlier this month, with a final performance at Into The Great Wide Open Festival in the Netherlands.

BCNR’s decision to perform brand new songs during the tour came in the wake of Wood’s departure from the band in January of this year. Wood, who contributed to both ‘Ants from Up There’ and BCNR’s 2020 debut ‘For The First Time’, said in a statement at the time that “I am not feeling so great and it means I won’t be a member of the group anymore”.

BCNR cancelled a few scheduled performances following the announcement, but continued as a six-piece at remaining shows throughout the year. In their own statement, the remaining members said “the things we’ll miss about working with Isaac are too many and various to list here, but by listening to the music we made together, I’m sure you’ll understand at least a few of them”.

In a five-star review of ‘Ants from Up There’, which featured on NME’s best albums of 2022 so far, NME’s Will Richards said the record was a “future cult classic” which “packs accessible sounds without sacrificing the band’s musical wizardry.”

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