BIG BIG TRAIN

Wow|! For a long time I thought English Electric Part 2 was the best Big Big Train record of their extensive discography. Now I´m not so sure. I bought this CD without hearing as single note, just because a friend in a local estore told me it was released in Brazil (the first BBT to be released here). And I have no regrets! I always knew that a record from this band was garanteed of at least good music, but I was not ready for such masterpiece of music.

The first full release of original material since the unexpected and very sad passing of former singer/multi instrumentist David Longdon, the album is packed with emotion, melancholy and inspiration. Certainly the feeling of sorrow pervates most of the songs, but it is not a downer. In fact, it´s more celebratory than mournful, and the melodies are simply gorgeous. I have seen many bands trying to emulate Genesis take on the 12 string acoustic guitar, but BBT is one of the very few tht really suceed in capturing the vibe of Peter Gabriel´s era band. The arrangements are just perfect and after months listening to it I still cannot find any fault. The songwriting, performances and production are all top notch.

New singer Alberto Bravin was a inspirational choice: the guy co-writes five of the the eight tracks, plays several instruments (but, alas, no flute!) and has a excellent voice. It´s hard to believe this is his first studio with the band. He sounds like he´s been with them forever! And the band is so tight and harmonical, the instrumental parts are fantastic, you have to listen to believe.

The Likes fo Us is one of the very few records nowadays I enjoy from start to finish without skipping a single track, even though it´s quite varied and ecclectic. All songs are highlights in some way and there is not a single weak track to be found. Even the ballad Love Is The Light (written for Bravin´s wife) is one of the most poignant I heard in a long time. The backing vocals are another great feature too.

After all those years (and a string of great works), Big Big Train still is capable of producing something powerful and unique. If you like inspirational, emotional and elaborated music, you can´t miss this masterpiece of prog music. It was the album of the year for me. Those guys are really one fo a kind.

Rating: five stars for a perfect album.

Four previously released BBT 'epics' (please forgive me this proghead terminology) get served up in new dress and combined with a brief interlude for strings - how well do they fit together?

In my mind the result is a revelation, even though at times (especially in 'Brooklands') Dave Gregory's splendid lead guitar almost gets swamped by the new 17-head string section, and in some of the faster passages those strings sound a little like the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE theme tune.

Greg Spawton clearly enjoys dishing out classic BBT material in remastered form; he tried something similar with THE UNDERFALL YARD in 2021 and the result was spectacular. Here, on INGENIOUS DEVICES, 'East Coast Racer' sounds richer and more Sensurround than ever. You'll definitely enjoy it, no matter how many live versions of the piece you may already possess. The great 'mellotron choir' section towards the end (now with added brass and strings) is simply overwhelming.

'Voyager' failed to impress me when I first heard it on GRAND TOUR (2019) but the 10-minute piece is a natural fit in this new context. 'Atlantic Cable', the 15-minute album closer, is not only an important historical document (as far as I know, it's the only BBT live recording with Albert Bravin on lead vocals AND Dave Foster on lead guitar); it also sounds fantastic, even though Bravin's voice seems a little muffled at times. Compositions like this will remind you that BBT have been treating us to some of the most triumphant Symphonic Prog since those SELLING ENGLAND & TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS glory days.

The band end the album on a reflective note, with some touching a capella vocals: 'Close the distance / Open minds / Hear the quiet words / The wisdom of strangers / Of those left behind'. A suitable message for troubled times.

BBT try very hard but do not quite cut the mustard.

Sarah Ewing's sunny cover picture and booklet illustrations point towards a new start, but in the central band photo everyone looks as if they're suffering from serious food poisoning. (Everyone, except new lead singer Alberto Bravin, that is: he's taken up a dominant position and indeed, his role in the band seems crucial - of the eight tracks on the album he co-wrote five, and he also helped Rob Aubrey with the mixing.)

This dichotomy, if you like, is reflected in the music. Some of the material is lovely; at other times the band seem to be sinking under the weight of their good intentions.

Let me focus on the disappointments first. The album opens touchingly, with a mournful statement that we should all 'make the most of the light left in the day', but the instrumental development that ensues sounds hollow, like the overture to a second-rate rock opera. I'm afraid the ten minute 'Miramare' also failed to convince me. The piece comes across as a dramatic mini-oratorio, and I'll admit it features impressive choruses, but the lyrics are trite, and no true emotion speaks from Bravin's lead vocal. (As far as I can tell, the track deals with a woman whose lover drowns at sea, but when Bravin sings 'Now they say / she still wanders in this place / all alone', his words sound utterly passionless.) 'Last Eleven', the final track, caused me similar problems: there's some lovely twelve-string-playing and a charming - all too brief - synth solo, but I kept thinking: where's the TUNE? (Perhaps my problems will all be resolved when I get to hear a live performance of these songs, which should be made available on the 2025 live album ARE WE NEARLY THERE YET...)

To my relief, THE LIKES OF US also features 'classic BBT'. 'Oblivion' is a zesty tune; 'Bookmarks' is lovely and features some tasty violin; 'Love Is The Light' is corny but you can't get it out of your head; and 'Beneath the Masts', the most ambitious track of all, had me cheering. There is, of course, an underlying melancholy to it, but it features an exciting instrumental section (shades of E.L.P., with some excellent solos on guitar and violin). At the end of the piece, when a synth takes up the song's main theme, the music sounds wonderfully triumphant, and when Bravin intones the words 'The moon is rising', I even thought: here we have BBT at their most sublime!

So how to rate this album? I'm facing a familiar dilemma: 'three and a half stars really'... If you're a dedicated BBT fan, you'll definitely want this. Everyone else should first check out the far superior studio albums the band released between 2008 and 2018.

When this album first appeared, its cover art filled me with trepidation. COMMON GROUND had looked bad enough, and now Big Big Train seemed to have gone the whole hog, using pure mid-1970s Jehovah's Witnesses ('The Watchtower') style.

As for the music... I still have mixed feelings about it. If anything, WELCOME TO THE PLANET reminds me of such latter-day Caravan albums as BETTER BY FAR, by which I mean: the band's most innovative soloists having flown the coop, there still is space for one or two haunting and quite a few inconsequential songs (in Caravan's case, I consider 'Nightmare' first-rate), and there may even be one or two instrumentals (once again, with Caravan I really appreciated 'The Last Unicorn').

So what have we here, exactly? 'Made from Sunshine' seems to be BBT's equivalent of Stevie Wonder's 'Isn't She Lovely', while 'The Connection Plan' sounds like angst-ridden, violin-driven, mid-seventies 10cc-style 'soft rock'. Matters improve with 'Lanterna', which is a charming ballad with splendid vocal harmonies, and with the touching 'Capitoline Venus', which mainly consists of acoustic 12-string, mellotron and David Longdon's lead vocal. 'A Room With No Ceiling' isn't bad either: a quirky, bass-driven instrumental which turns into a little march that reminds me of National Health. On 'Proper Jack Foster', Longdon's voice sound warmer and more soothing than I'd ever heard before - which makes it all the more sad that this was to be his last studio recording with the band. 'Bats in the Belfry' is a lively instrumental that somehow reminds me of the Who's 'Sparks' (a.k.a. 'Underture'). 'Oak and Stone' is yet another nostalgic ballad with lovely vocal harmonies and very lush mellotron - but then - my goodness what just happened? - Carly Bryant's title track is an out-and-out scary song (about childlessness, it seems); it ends the album on a deep sigh.

Taken all together, I'd say WELCOME TO THE PLANET is an O.K. product which can't hold a candle to earlier and far more ambitious BBT albums like ENGLISH ELECTRIC (parts 1 & 2) or FOLKLORE. One wonders what direction the band might have taken if only David Longdon (and perhaps Carly Bryant as well) had been available for future releases...

After GRAND TOUR, which I found disappointing, BBT are back in a big way. The band's idealism is marked even more strongly than on their previous album. Three of the first four tracks feature lines such as: 'Together / is the way we'll survive', 'Opened up to freely share / Everyone and everywhere / All the love we can give' and: 'We see the same stars / Walk the same ground / Lit by the same sun / We can be one.' Were Greg Spawton and David Longdon still reacting against Britain's fateful decision to leave the EU?

Musically speaking, the album shows an interesting evolution. Three of BBT's greatest soloists (Rachel Hall on violin, Andy Manners on keyboards and Dave Gregory on guitar) having left, the most exciting solos are now provided by Rikard Sjöblom, who does amazing things on Hammond organ and various synths. Dave Gregory's absence also means the final track's brass quintet apotheosis is almost devoid of ecstatic lead guitar. At the same time, the band have worked hard on their harmony vocals: D'Virgilio, Sjöblom, Longdon and - a newcomer - Carly Bryant now take care of these together, and the result is highly pleasing to the ear.

'Part One' of the album (which encompasses the first four tracks) is more lightweight than 'Part Two', which seems more closely related to 'classic' BBT. 'The Strangest Times', a fun opener, feels like the band's homage to Elton John's interpretation of 'Pinball Wizard'. 'All the Love We Can Give' and 'Black With Ink' almost veer into run-of-the-mill AOR, but 'Dandelion Clock' (another uptempo piece) is sung with such conviction that the listener perks up.

'Part Two' clearly deserves four stars. 'Apollo' is a delightful instrumental with a great bass line and remarkable solo contributions on flute, violin (played by Aidan O'Rourke), brass and Hammond organ. The title track is wonderfully catchy as well, and the 15 minute 'Atlantic Cable' is as good as anything on earlier BBT albums such as FOLKLORE or ENGLISH ELECTRIC.

While two or three of the tracks on COMMON GROUND are probably 'non-essential', most of the material is so uplifting that the album as a whole will form an 'excellent addition' to any prog rock music collection.

There's quite a tradition in prog of dealing with Weighty Literary Themes: 'The Fountain of Salmacis' (based on Ovid's METAMORPHOSES), TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION (based on Edgar Allan Poe) and 'Xanadu' (based on Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan') spring to mind. Big Big Train do a splendid job here with the 14 min. 28 sec. 'Ariel', which neatly combines allusions to THE TEMPEST with references to the life and poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley. It's the highlight of the album, and it's a predominantly vocal track.

I've got decidedly mixed feelings about the remainder of the album. 'Alive' and 'The Florentine' are okay I guess, the former consisting of 'power pop' with the addition of some neat little mellotron, and the latter featuring pleasant solos on violin, Moog and electric guitar. 'Theodora in Green and Gold' is good too: catchy and touching, but with a chord progression that's perhaps a little too similar to 'Judas Unrepentant'. The main problem lies with the album's other 'mini-epics'. The 13 min. 33 sec. 'Roman Stone' has no tune worth speaking of and features boring, cliché-like lyrics. ('All things must pass / Dawn down to dusk / All stories have an ending / The first and the last': if that's all you can say about the Roman Empire, just SHUT UP!) The piece almost comes alive in the middle, where there's a fast interlude for rhythm section, brass and flute, but it soon falls flat again. Similarly, the 14 min. 'Voyager' is far too wordy and the words mean little ('Out into the open skies / To find out what we are / How far we've come / How far we can go' - oh pleeease!), there's a pleasant instrumental section with a bubbly synth solo that reminds me of Genesis' 'Riding The Scree', but the thing-as-a-whole fails to capture the imagination. 'Homesong' initially feels pleasant enough, but its Grand Finale (with added brass ensemble and Dave Gregory's guitar wailing away, more or less like in 'East Coast Racer') seems overcooked and undeserved; in my opinion it merely grates.

It seems likely that GRAND TOUR was Big Big Train's reaction to Britain's 'Brexit' vote of June 2016. While the band's intentions may have been good ('Let's just show how Britain used to CONNECT with the rest of Europe'), the album flounders disastrously. Which is no surprise, really, for in the preceding ten years BBT had delivered four or five true masterpieces, and inspiration can't last forever...

After releasing six splendid studio albums between 2007 and 2017, Big Big Train were treading water with this one. Only the first seven tracks were new, and most of them turned out to be rather lacklustre ballads. David Longdon sounds tired when singing about 'the new Elizabethans' in 'Skylon'. He's far more convincing in 'The Passing Widow', which was written by violinist Rachel Hall who also takes up harmony vocals; unfortunately the lyrics are terribly sentimental. Hall did a much better job with 'Haymaking', a jaunty instrumental that shows BBT at their best, providing Tull-like variations on an irresistibly folksy tune. The highlights of the album are the extended versions of 'Brooklands' (17 mins. 33 secs.) and 'London Plane' (13 mins. 14 secs.) that follow. Here the band's playing is highly energetic, and we get to hear some fascinating things. On 'Brooklands', for example, Longdon sounds so much like Peter Gabriel it's uncanny... On 'Turner by the Thames' (a new introduction to 'London Plane') there's an incredible fast passage featuring trombone, cello, flute, electric guitar and piano - all playing together but clearly distinguishable. Eventually all these instruments (including the rhythm section, of course) are enveloped by mellotron in its choral setting (going 'aaah, aaah'): no-one but Big Big Train would have dared it or could have pulled it off. 'London Plane' itself features a couple of brief but crazy organ solos, presumably played by Rikard Sjöblom, and a fast, very Tull-like instrumental workout for flute and electric guitar. (I don't really know what that workout is supposed to be doing in the middle of the tune, but I find it breath-taking.) To round the album off, 'The Gentlemen's Reprise' is another short but exuberant (almost-) instrumental, with virtuoso guitar playing from Dave Gregory.

Verdict:

Two stars for tracks 1, 3, 4, 6 & 7. Three stars for track 5. Four stars for tracks 2, 8, 9, 10.

That leaves us with about 36 minutes of first-rate Symphonic Prog, which is almost as much content as CLOSE TO THE EDGE, so I'll award the entire album three stars.

"The Difference Machine" is the seventh (counting the two demo albums) full-length studio album by UK progressive rock act Big Big Train. The album was released through English Electric Recordings in August 2007. After years of label issues, financial issues, and lineup changes, Big Big Train opted to set up their own label in 2007 (English Electric Recordings) and to start to release their albums (and related projects) through that label. "The Difference Machine" is the first release on English Electric Recordings. It´s the successor to "Gathering Speed" from 2004 and it´s the point where Big Big Train went from being a part-time hobby project to becoming a real professional band (although "Gathering Speed" certainly has its moments of glory too).

Although it wouldn´t be until the release and success of "The Underfall Yard" (English Electric Recordings, December 2009), that Big Big Train would have their final breakthrough, the overall quality of "The Difference Machine" has significantly changed in a positive way compared to the previous releases by the band. Sean Filkins already showed that he had a strong voice and a pleasant melodic delivery (influenced greatly by Peter Gabriel/Phil Collins) on "Gathering Speed", but on "The Difference Machine" he comes into his own and delivers an even stronger vocal performance. The sound production on "The Difference Machine" is also a feature where Big Big Train have succeeded in enhancing the quality of their output. Every album before this one featured decent, but not great sounding production values, while "The Difference Machine" features a professional, organic, and detailed sound production perfectly suiting the band´s progressive rock sound.

Stylistically late 70s Genesis is still a strong influence on the band´s sound (both Yes and King Crimson could also be mentioned as valid influences and there´s a jazz-rock influence heard here and there, which should be mentioned too), but there are also moments of 80s neo-progressive rock, and there are even a few moments where I´m reminded of late 90s/early 00s Porcupine Tree. So Big Big Train have a lot of different influences in their music, and they seamlessly combine them into their own sound. This is both melodic, beautiful, mellow, powerful, epic, symphonic, atmospheric, and above all cleverly written music. It´s challenging but never at the expense of melody and memorability. So most of the time the progressive nature of the music is pretty subtle, although Big Big Train are certainly compenent and technically well playing musicians and also deliver more challenging and harder rocking moments.

"The Difference Machine" are made up of three longer epic tracks (14:40, 13:39, and 12:38 minutes long), which are all succeeded by a shorter "intro" track and then the 7:34 minutes long closing track "Summer's Lease". It´s a high quality release throughout and every track feels like a beautiful and intriguing musical journey. There are so many different things happening all the time but even when the tracks change in the most abrupt manner, it still feels like a natural continuation of what came before. Nothing sounds forced or placed somewhere just to be there. There is a plan and obviously a great understanding of composition and form. A 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is deserved.

THE DIFFERENCE MACHINE has not exactly established itself as a Big Big Train classic, seeing as it received only one (admittedly enthusiastic) review here between 2013 and 2025. I must have bought the album soon after I'd discovered THE UNDERFALL YARD, not knowing anything about BBT's earlier releases. As a matter of fact I'm still unfamiliar with everything BBT did before THE DIFFERENCE MACHINE, but I do know all the albums from the David Longdon and Alberto Bravin years. From today's point of view, I found it interesting to look back and wonder if THE DIFFERENCE MACHINE showed us 'classic BBT' in embryonic form. And to a certain extent that turned out indeed to be the case: it would be easy to imagine 'Perfect Cosmic Storm' (the album's most ambitious track) on THE UNDERFALL YARD, with David Longdon on vocals. Nick D'Virgilio is already there on drums, the main melody and the choruses are typical Greg Spawton but the greatest surprise is that Spawton does not actually play bass (that role is taken by Dave Meros) - instead, he plays (delightfully scratchy) rhythm guitar throughout and even delivers a couple of brief but thoroughly convincing solos. Spawton also takes care of the guitars on the album's other 'mini-epics', but I must admit I had some trouble with those. 'Pick Up If You're There' is virtually tuneless, but it does feature some truly mean guitar combined with great saxophone, and Pete Trewavas is a highly exciting guest on bass. 'Saltwater Falling on Uneven Ground' reminded me a little of U2, but I didn't know what to make of Sean Filkins, the lead vocalist: now he adopts a fake U.S. accent, now he sounds like an innocent English choirboy. On 'Summer's Lease', the final track, Filkins also came across as far too sweet - it's a good thing that Rob Aubrey (BBT's sound engineer) was about to discover David Longdon, who would take the band to a wholly new level of attainment. As for the meaning of the album: some of the lyrics are obscure, but it seems Greg Spawton was trying to equate the death of love with the death of stars. Perhaps he hadn't yet found his real theme: on subsequent albums his words would sound more powerful, with all those elegies for a long-lost England...

I'm finding this album hard to review. On the one hand, in 'Brave Captain', 'Meadowland' and 'A Mead Hall in Winter', it contains some of BBT's most original and riveting tracks. On the other hand, the album feels strangely diffuse and also didactic, and in spite of excellent musicianship throughout, the spark that characterised THE UNDERFALL YARD, ENGLISH ELECTRIC (pts. I & II) and FOLKLORE is sometimes missing. Songs like 'The Ivy Gate' and 'As the Crow Flies' just don't do much for me. As for the didacticism, Greg Spawton's liner notes contain the passage: 'Whilst the Enlightenment is undoubtedly a Good Thing, some Enlightenment thinking is quite austere, with an emphasis on knowledge above all other things. For me, the "sweet-spot" for humanity is in the crossover between the values of the Enlightenment and Romanticism...' All of which makes me want to shout, O.K. Greg, move on to the next slide - and could you perhaps develop those thoughts a little by Monday? Even 'Brave Captain' is, in a sense, a history lesson, but David Longdon (who wrote both the words and the music) clearly hadn't made up his mind if he wanted to compose a patriotic song (when I attended a BBT gig in London, there were quite a few military men in the audience) or an anti-war song (viz. the lyrics 'You were a poster boy / who shunned your own fame / who didn't take to the accolades / even when propaganda / screamed your name'.)

Enough with the moaning! Both 'Meadowland' and the title track I find deeply moving. (What other prog band would dare to write a simple hymn to all those who seek 'science and art / and beauty and music / and friendship and love'?) 'On the Racing Line' is a lovely instrumental, 'Experimental Gentlemen' is catchy in a TRICK OF THE TAIL kind of way, and all things considered we've got at least 50 minutes of superior 'symphonic prog' here, embellished with gorgeous solos on electric guitar (mainly by Dave Gregory, I suppose), Rachel Hall (violin) and various keyboards (Rikard Sjöblom and Danny Manners). Although BBT have released quite a few albums since GRIMSPOUND, I honestly cannot say (as of February 2025, when I'm writing this review) they've ever really captured the same heights again.