Midway through their ambitious 2021 debut, For the First Time, Black Country, New Road jokingly called themselves "the world's second-best Slint tribute act." Between frontman Isaac Wood's agitated sprechgesang and the group's queasy, off-center grooves, the self-inflicted burn made sense-and could have applied to a whole wave of nervy, British post-punk upstarts who talked more than they sang and attracted critical adoration around the turn of the decade.