Music Banter - View Single Post - Bitesize: Trollheart's Daily Album Mini-Reviews

Trollheart · 07-03-2012, 09:37 AM

Gabriel's legacy is alive and well and living in Bournemouth

Artiste: Big Big Train
Nationality: British (English)
Album: Goodbye to the age of steam
Year: 1994
Label: Giant Electric Pea
Genre: Progressive rock
Tracks
Wind distorted pioneers
Head hit the pillow
Edge of the known world
Landfall
Dragon Bone Hill
Blow the house down
Expecting snow
Blue silver red
Losing your way
Chronological position: Debut album
Familiarity: Zero, other than a few tracks here and there.
Interesting Factoid: This album was basically entirely the baby of guitarist/keyboard player Greg Spawton, who wrote the music and lyrics to all the tracks save two, on which he collaborated.
Impression: The hype I'd been creating in my head about this band is well justified, and they live up to it without question.
Best track(s): Hard to pick one out, not because there aren't any, but because they're ALL great! I particularly like Head hit the pillow, Landfall and Dragon Bone Hill, but love the rest too. This is one great album.
Worst track(s): Not a single one. Not even a weak one.
Intention: Get into this band the old way, ie chronologically.
Comments:Yeah, I hear so much about Big Big Train, and how their sound changed down the years that I would rather not start in the middle, with some of their more popular releases, like “The difference engine” or “The underfall yard”. In this age of playlists, selected tracks and cherry-picking I want to treat this band the way I used to, which was get their first album and then the rest in order. Nah, I never did that, or at least not always: it was quite often a case of find one album I like, buy a few more either side, end up going back as far as I could and then collecting their more recent releases. But there were a few, like Marillion for instance, with whom I got into their music on their debut and then followed them religiously album by album as each was released. That's how I'd like to approach BBT, cos I think I may very much like them, from the snippets and few tracks I've heard up to now.

And right away I hear elements of Genesis and Floyd in their music, quite relaxed and laidback for the most part, atmospheric and rather entrancing. Vocalist Martin Read has a very engaging and warm voice, kind of reminds me of Francis Dunnery from It Bites. Some beautiful and tasteful acoustic guitar work from Greg Spawton on the instrumentals Dragon Bone Hill and Expecting snow, the latter also containing some soothing keyboard. There's a certain sense of bittersweet melancholy about pretty much all of the album; very gentle, very restrained with some powerful vocal harmonies and great keys. This will definitely be going on the shortlist for full review in my main journal at some point.

07-03-2012, 09:37 AM	#18 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Gabriel's legacy is alive and well and living in Bournemouth Artiste: Big Big Train Nationality: British (English) Album: Goodbye to the age of steam Year: 1994 Label: Giant Electric Pea Genre: Progressive rock Tracks Wind distorted pioneers Head hit the pillow Edge of the known world Landfall Dragon Bone Hill Blow the house down Expecting snow Blue silver red Losing your way Chronological position: Debut album Familiarity: Zero, other than a few tracks here and there. Interesting Factoid: This album was basically entirely the baby of guitarist/keyboard player Greg Spawton, who wrote the music and lyrics to all the tracks save two, on which he collaborated. Impression: The hype I'd been creating in my head about this band is well justified, and they live up to it without question. Best track(s): Hard to pick one out, not because there aren't any, but because they're ALL great! I particularly like Head hit the pillow, Landfall and Dragon Bone Hill, but love the rest too. This is one great album. Worst track(s): Not a single one. Not even a weak one. Intention: Get into this band the old way, ie chronologically. Comments:Yeah, I hear so much about Big Big Train, and how their sound changed down the years that I would rather not start in the middle, with some of their more popular releases, like “The difference engine” or “The underfall yard”. In this age of playlists, selected tracks and cherry-picking I want to treat this band the way I used to, which was get their first album and then the rest in order. Nah, I never did that, or at least not always: it was quite often a case of find one album I like, buy a few more either side, end up going back as far as I could and then collecting their more recent releases. But there were a few, like Marillion for instance, with whom I got into their music on their debut and then followed them religiously album by album as each was released. That's how I'd like to approach BBT, cos I think I may very much like them, from the snippets and few tracks I've heard up to now. And right away I hear elements of Genesis and Floyd in their music, quite relaxed and laidback for the most part, atmospheric and rather entrancing. Vocalist Martin Read has a very engaging and warm voice, kind of reminds me of Francis Dunnery from It Bites. Some beautiful and tasteful acoustic guitar work from Greg Spawton on the instrumentals Dragon Bone Hill and Expecting snow, the latter also containing some soothing keyboard. There's a certain sense of bittersweet melancholy about pretty much all of the album; very gentle, very restrained with some powerful vocal harmonies and great keys. This will definitely be going on the shortlist for full review in my main journal at some point. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 01-13-2015 at 05:21 AM.