ENGLISH ELECTRIC (PART ONE)

I am having an unhealthily fast growth of love with this band. In a matter of months I had come to own over half of their discography.

I love Big Big Train so much because of their maturity and focused, pervasive artistic vision in addition to the standard expert musicianship and songwriting. They are capable of creating vibrant atmospheres with dramatic vocal lines and thought-provoking lyrics, and at the same time rock it out to familiar compositional structures that were in the 1970s era of prog rock.

They spend untold amounts of effort to what other songwriters would regard as a less important, non-highlight track. "Working Out" and "Leopards" were on first listen awkwardly placed and schizophrenic in feeling, but after a few spins they grew into the overall picture of Victorian England in the Age of Steam.

I do not even have to talk about "East Coast Rider" and "Curator of Butterflies," because they are clearly masterful works of wonder and passion. It is also incredibly easy to adore "Keeper of Abbeys" and "The Permanent Way" as meaningful, rich compositions. Personally I had become obsessed with "Hedgerow" from the previous album, and I became absolutely hard at the moment of its reprise. "Swan Hunter" is another standout track for me, because it encapsulated the feeling of nostalgic discourse perfectly.

The album opener and closer always remind me of a vivid sunset saturating the skies with rich orange. Pure, warm, musical bliss.

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