Home Artist links Label link

Big Big Train - English Boy Wonders

Artist:	Big Big Train
Title:	English Boy Wonders
Label:	Giant Electric Pea GEPCD 1020
Length(s):	72 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1997
Month of review:	09/1998

Line up

Steve Hughes - drums, percussion
Tony Muller - piano, keyboards
Martin Read - lead and backing vocals
Andy Poole - bass, keyboards, backing vocals
Gregory Spawton - lead guitars, keyboards, vocals

Tracks

1)	Big Empty Skies	4.22
2)	Brushed Aside	5.38
3)	A Giddy Thing	5.16
4)	28 Years	2.25
5)	Pretty Mom	3.26
6)	Out Of It	5.58
7)	Cloudless And Starry And Still	3.33
8)	Albion Perfide	10.24
9)	Right To The End Of The World Tra-la	1.56
10)	The Shipping Forecast	10.46
11)	Mr. Boxgroveman	6.12
12)	Reaching For John Dowland	8.14
13)	Fell Asleep	3.36

Summary

Took some time for this disc to reach me. I'm not sure what happened, but the fact that I will be doing an interview with these guys did allow me to obtain it after all and so I thought why not review it as well.

The music

This long album opens with Big Empty Skies. The beginning is quite jumpy and frolic and reminds me of a band like Summer Indoors. The album stays rocky throughout and lots of riffing goes on. Without a problem we move right into the slightly jazzy pianic Brushed Aside, which is thoroughly melodic contains some terrific highpoints. A Giddy Thing is more upbeat with quick keyboards playing around the guitar. Then the song becomes more moody again with some powerful chords, but the singing parts are sung as if laid back lounge jazz with the piano accompanying. The short 28 Years is a melancholic piece (but aren't they all?), but it's just a little too friendly and dreamy. The same holds somewhat for Pretty Mom: easy acoustic guitar, laid back vocals and some harmony singing. The power returns in Out Of It, that opens with heavy guitar. But, of course I would almost say, we then come to a quiet part and the guitar is more jazzy, and the vocals can start. The second part of the track is like the intro quite rough and features some very nice guitar work. Cloudless And Starry And Still is a bouncy track, midtempo with some mostly acoustic guitar and a nicely audible bass. The first long track is Albion Perfide. This is one of those track with good melodies. I like the opening with some more typical prog guitar. After the first vocal part, we get a beautiful interlude on piano. After a percussive guitar part and a more jazzy piano part, we come back to the dreamy vocals. After tge frolic Right To The End Of The World we come to the second epic of the album, The Shipping Forecast. This track I like less than the previous epic, Albion Perfide, it is less varied. Still, the track is nice, especially when the guitar comes in more often at the end. Mr. Boxgroveman has a recognizable vocal melody. The bass is nicely audible in this moody and slightly mysterious track. Reaching For John Dowland is also a good track with again some beautiful melodies, with a short but funky break. It seems it as if to erase the memory of the previous melodic part, before going into another one. The last track Fell Asleep is probably meant as some sort of lullabye.

The lyrics are quite down-to-earth and about everyday experiences, in a sense quite different from the story telling lyrics of most prog bands.

Conclusion

An interview with these guys revealed their liking of The Blue Nile, Steely Dan and XTC. The music is then very song directed and because of the limited voice of Martin Read, I mean the voice itself is good, but he uses it always in the same way, the music has a sameness to it and the difference lies either in the quiet/nonquiet distinction and the melody. Fortunately, many of the song are based on memorable melodies and this saves the album I would say. The music of the band is overall quite jazzy and laidback and features plenty of acoustic guitar, but fortunately also the electric guitar is used at times. The lyrics and the music make this quite a melancholic album with climactic points and especially suited to listen to late at night, when all around you things have gone silent or to sleep. Highpoints are Brushed Aside, Albion Perfide and Mr. Boxgroveman.