Big Big Train does things in threes, apparently. In September 2012, the band released English Electric Part One, followed six months later by English Electric Part Two. These two albums were then combined, shuffled and joined by four new tracks six months later in English Electric, Full Power. This makes for two and a half … Continue reading
I found it rather lamentable that Rikard Sjöblom left Beardfish (concurrent with the demise of the band) in the wake of their having released what I felt was their strongest album, 2015’s +4626-Comfortzone. And while I am a fan of the band Sjöblom joined, it still felt like the result was the prog world losing … Continue reading
I first heard of Big Big Train when listening to a sampler CD that came with my prescription to Prog Magazine. The song was “Judas Unrepentant” off of the soon to be released album, English Electric. I was listening to it in my car and thought it sounded a fun song — I could tell … Continue reading
Album Reclamation Project Welcome to the fifth installment of the Album Reclamation Project at Proglodytes! Again, we will revisit a maligned Album of the Past and discuss whether it’s really as bad as all that. As a reminder, we will be utilizing the soon to be copyrighted Official Proglodyte Dumpster Fire Scale. In this episode … Continue reading
Let’s get this out of the way: I’m a Steve Hackett fan. I have been one since I first noticed his pioneering work in Genesis. In fact, I don’t divide Genesis, as many do, between the Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel eras. For me, the real shift came when Hackett left the band to explore … Continue reading
“Even among my catalog, this next song is particularly miserable.” Thus did Steven Wilson introduce ‘Routine’, providing a brief moment of levity before the band played one of the most heartbreaking songs in all of rock/pop music. It was the first of three times that tears formed in the corner of my eyes during this … Continue reading
If anyone in contemporary prog is more ubiquitous than Steven Wilson, it’s Neal Morse (and maybe Mike Portnoy). After leaving Spock’s Beard, Morse has released albums under his own name, as well as the bands Transatlantic, and Flying Colors; he released a pair of cover albums with the aforementioned Mr. Portnoy as well as formed a … Continue reading
