BIG BIG TRAIN

British prog classicists honour absent friends, look to the past and forge a new future with their very first narrative concept album.

- Words: Polly Glass Illustration: Matthew Holland

Big Big Train's last studio album, 2024's The Likes Of Us, was made in the shadow of loss. It was the first collection of new songs they'd written and released since the death of frontman David Longdon at the end of 2021, and that hung in its stirring tones. Bassist Gregory Spawton was also grieving for his stepfather, which led to the epic Beneath The Masts. New singer Alberto Bravin was dealing with his own personal issues with depression, something he addressed in the confessional, delicate Love Is The Light. It was an emotional record to make and one that was simpler by BBT's standards, the band largely turning inwards instead of weaving tales rooted in history.

Woodcut sounds like the work of a group who have moved through the storm. Their 16th album finds them in the storytelling realm in a major way, with their very first full-blown concept record, centred on 'The Artist' as he journeys through creative, emotional and existential crises. Sixty-six minutes are spread across 16 enveloping tracks, none of which are more than seven minutes long (two string-led interludes are less than a minute), each flowing into the next. It's like hearing the soundtrack for a stage opera with weirder time signatures and more Mellotron.