Great, thanks for the additional info. I'll be sure to check back in here after I've had some time to digest some of these albums. Thanks again to everyone who responded!
Thought I'd update you guys on my BBT discovery. I picked up The Underfall Yard and I've got about 5 or 6 complete listens under my belt. Not enough to pick up on all the nuances, but enough to know this album is absolutely awesome! Total ear candy indeed. I love all the layers and the very lush sound overall. Loving Nick's drumming and David's voice (he does indeed have an almost bizarre mix of Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel sound to his voice). I'm also really loving what the horns and woodwinds add to the sound - and feel they really use them in the right places to their maximum effect.
Really happy to hear you are enjoying the band! The Underfall Yard is definitely a landmark album for the band, and David adds SO much to the overall sound of the band, not just for his voice, but also his flute playing as well. And yeah, David does have a very Genesis-esque voice, which really shapes the band's sound to be a bit more familiar but also fresh at the same time. It still amuses me that David had auditioned for Genesis after Phil quit, and that Nick played drums on their last album (...Calling All Stations...) - in an alternate reality, both Nick and David would have joined Genesis with Tony and Mike and may have carried on the band for a few more albums!
I'm thinking I'll pick up English Electric: Full Power next - or is it best to pick them up separately and experience them one at a time?
If you're going to continue chronologically, I would suggest checking out Far Skies Deep Time next before moving on to any of the English Electric stuff. Far Skies Deep Time is an album-length EP with songs that were leftover from their previous two albums' sessions, all recorded by the line-up that made The Underfall Yard, including the 17-minute epic "The Wide Open Sea". I say it's an album-length EP because every version of the disc has been at least 40 minute. It was originally released as a five-track album, with two different opening tracks: "Master Of Time" is a reworking of an old song by Anthony Phillips (from the first two Genesis albums), and "Kingmaker" is a reworking of a very early Big Big Train song released on one of their first demo CDs before their debut, but now expanded into a 10-minute epic. A more recent re-release of FSDT in 2017 takes all six tracks and puts them onto one album, which is what I would suggest to listen to next! You can find FSDT on the band's bandcamp, but it doesn't include "Master Of Time".
Likewise, you can also find both English Electric Parts One and Two on their bandcamp (in standard and hi-resolution audio), but also the Full Power compilation of the two albums (which includes all four new songs released on the stand-alone EP Make Some Noise, including the title track which became the opening song on Full Power). There is also a hi-resolution audio version of English Electric: Full Power, though I don't think it's the 2016 Remix/Remaster they released five years ago, but I'm sure it's still just as good to hear.
Definitely give yourself some time to digest EEFP as it's two hours and fifteen minutes long, but one of the best albums I've ever heard in my life. There's a LOT to take in through its 19 songs, but there are some stand-outs like "The First Rebreather", "Swan Hunter", "Summoned By Bells", "Judas Unrepentant", and "East Coast Racer" (the longest track on the album clocking in at nearly 16 minutes). The album is full of pastoral-English settings, historical scenes, some biographical stories, and just great playing all around for every member of the band. Give yourself some time to take it all in before moving on to further BBT albums, though, as repeated listens to EEFP will be very rewarding!
-Marc.
Topic: Big Big Train v. "The Likes Of Us" OUT NOW; European Tour Sept/Oct 2024! (Read 111317 times)