INSIDEOUT MUSIC 6th February 2026
With a strong heritage in prog rock, it’s amazing that Big Big Train’s sixteenth album is their first concept album. The framework has worked well for the band, giving them a scaffold to hang their musical ideas on and prompt lyrics, with the result being a set of songs that can stand alone or be seen as an overall story.
A framing device might be the idea of ‘new boy’ Alberto Bravin bringing new approaches and is attributed to Bravin and bassist Gregory Spawton seeing woodcuts in the Oslo Munchmuseet while on tour. No throwing TVs out of the window and vomiting for these lads. Drawing the seven-piece band in, they workshopped the tale of their character, ‘The Artist’, making or imagining scenes, with the stories that come with them. Sharing composition and vocals through the band, the result was a varied and interesting set of pieces.
In terms of sound, you might think of early Genesis or early Marillion – a melodic, song-focussed album, with no twenty-minute guitar-strangling epics but plenty of opportunity for showcasing musical excellence. And there is plenty of excellence here, with some chewy bass, tight keyboards, illustrative violin and, of course, lots of melodic guitar solos, some rising into a flurry or fury. There’s little to no indulgence and the album logs in at sixty-six minutes, once it has run its course. It roams from thoughtful pastoral songs to character portraits to soaring rock-outs, complete with solos and wigouts. Songs like ‘Albion Press’ are tightly arranged, dropping out of noise to quiet thoughts and dramatic guitar figures before returning to rock. ‘Warp and Weft’ sees a weaving song set to intricate music – firm cross-cutting melody, choppy rhythms and speedy guitar solos. It sounds like a celestial loom, with its unusual time signatures and busy cooperation. ‘Light Without Heat’ is a good place to sample the album – a big flying guitar solo and gently aspirational lyrics. ‘Cut and Run’ is the other aspect of the band – fast, furious riffs, weaving between each other in the complexity that characterises one aspect of Prog.
If you are following the concept, the questions that arise as the songs and instrumentals pass is, are these visions, dreams, woodcuts, madness? Or you can take them as a set of well-crafted songs allowing a talented band to shine and show off their polish. It’s a satisfying collection, whatever approach you take; travelling up, down and sideways; always cohesive in approach but never wearing out its welcome. A band that knows when not to play, because the rest will please so much more and a band that knows when to let it rip. It’s the sound of a confident band refusing to turn out the same thing, insistent on testing themselves with a challenge.
Ross McGibbon