Year: 2009
Label: English Electric
Catalog Number: EECD005
Format: CD (digipak)
As a huge fan of mid-seventies Genesis, I’ve long hoped against hope that the four-piece lineup of Banks, Collins, Hackett and Rutherford would someday reunite and produce a worthy successor to genre-defining albums A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering. After hearing The Underfall Yard, I’m forced to admit that the product of said reunion would probably never match the spot-on brilliance of this modern progressive masterpiece. Truly, The Underfall Yard ranks up there with the aforementioned albums, without sounding like a stale copy of either. And despite a sound that recalls that era, replete with shifting time signatures, Mellotrons, and dual 12-string guitars, Big Big Train are no mere tribute band.
The Genesis comparison isn’t surprising, though, given their lineup: This time founding members Greg Spawton and Andy Poole are joined by new vocalist David Longdon, who actually rehearsed for several months with Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford after Phil Collins’ 1996 departure from Genesis. (Two singers were auditioned as possible replacements for Collins—the band eventually chose Ray Wilson for the Calling All Stations album.) At times Longdon does sound like a dead ringer for Collins, right down to his vocal ad-libs and harmonies. What’s more, Big Big Train drummer (and Spock’s Beard frontman) Nick D’Virgilio actually did record with Genesis on Calling All Stations.
But while the sound may be similar, the melodies and music are all their own, and each song is masterfully crafted. Lyrically, a theme of wistful nostalgia runs through the album, and many of the songs reflect on the end of Britain’s Industrial Age and the works of its great engineers and architects.
The stunning 23-minute title track was inspired by Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who helped design the London boatyard known as The Underfall Yard. Similarly, “Master James of St. George” celebrates the many castles in England and Wales built by that Medieval architect. And “Winchester Diver” tells the story of William Walker, a deep-sea diver who in 1906 saved Winchester Cathedral from collapse by shoring up its foundation, working alone for five years in pitch-black water far beneath the cathedral. In the song, eerie sound effects of a diver’s air pump combine with ominous music and lyrics that contrast the hellish conditions Walker endured with the serene churchgoers worshipping above: “Two worlds apart / The people say their Sunday prayers / Music fills the vaulted space / The organ covers up the hammer falls.”
The Genesis comparison isn’t surprising, though, given their lineup: This time founding members Greg Spawton and Andy Poole are joined by new vocalist David Longdon, who actually rehearsed for several months with Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford after Phil Collins’ 1996 departure from Genesis. (Two singers were auditioned as possible replacements for Collins—the band eventually chose Ray Wilson for the Calling All Stations album.) At times Longdon does sound like a dead ringer for Collins, right down to his vocal ad-libs and harmonies. What’s more, Big Big Train drummer (and Spock’s Beard frontman) Nick D’Virgilio actually did record with Genesis on Calling All Stations.
But while the sound may be similar, the melodies and music are all their own, and each song is masterfully crafted. Lyrically, a theme of wistful nostalgia runs through the album, and many of the songs reflect on the end of Britain’s Industrial Age and the works of its great engineers and architects.
The stunning 23-minute title track was inspired by Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who helped design the London boatyard known as The Underfall Yard. Similarly, “Master James of St. George” celebrates the many castles in England and Wales built by that Medieval architect. And “Winchester Diver” tells the story of William Walker, a deep-sea diver who in 1906 saved Winchester Cathedral from collapse by shoring up its foundation, working alone for five years in pitch-black water far beneath the cathedral. In the song, eerie sound effects of a diver’s air pump combine with ominous music and lyrics that contrast the hellish conditions Walker endured with the serene churchgoers worshipping above: “Two worlds apart / The people say their Sunday prayers / Music fills the vaulted space / The organ covers up the hammer falls.”
The historical subject matter is intriguing and original, and the musicianship is amazing throughout. As an added bonus, ex-XTC guitarist Dave Gregory is now listed as a full-time member of Big Big Train—a perfect fit, as his former band exuded an overtly English sensibility as well. Gregory’s electric 12-string fretwork adds great texture to the tracks, and additional instruments such as cello, cornet—and, in “Victorian Brickwork,” even a post-rock brass section—take the music on The Underfall Yard to places even Genesis wouldn’t have dared.
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