Album Review: Big Big Train - Welcome To The Planet

This is unexpected. Big Big Train have been chugging along (you don't need to throw tomatoes - I know that was terrible) for a long time now, but this album comes not long after the sad news that lead singer David Longdon passed away. That overshadows everything else about the album. How are we supposed to sit down and examine the record, when it serves as the last statement of his life, and a step in the now uncertain future of the band. It almost feels inconsequential to banter about whether this song is good and this song isn't, but that's the job, and that's what we're here to do.

Big Big Train's sound has been one of optimistic, happy prog. Their sound is brighter, full of harmonies, and a bit more classicist than we often hear from prog. Really, there isn't that much prog to their sound, if we're being honest. They've never gotten bogged down in trying to prove their worth, in that sense, which is quite refreshing.

Given the circumstances, perhaps it's a big odd to open the album with a song called "Made From Sunshine". This isn't the brightest of times, but we can probably read it as a metaphysical musing on how the universe is made from a finite number of components, and they get recycled time and again to form everything that ever was, or ever will be. Depending on your spirituality, that is a very reassuring thought. As for the song, it's the warm and inviting tone we expect from Big Big Train, with horns dotting the recording, and a lovely guitar solo that beautifully plays off the soft harmonies.

"The Connection Plan" is built off a complicated violin part that sounds as if it could be a theme for a Sherlock Holmes film. Between that, and a syncopated vocal section led by Nick D'Virgilio, it's quite an interesting track that is unique and a bit odd. It's the sort of prog that isn't progressive in the way we think about it today, but is progressive in the old fashioned way of subverting our expectations. It's not only a good song, but it's one that stands out from the pack, which gets harder and harder to do.

Unfortunately, the album starts to bog down toward the middle. There's a short two-minute ballad that doesn't do very much, then an instrumental where I have to admit I tend to zone out. I always hate when bands dip into the world of instrumentals, both because I don't like removing an important element from the compositions (which is rarely compensated for with a strong melody from an instrument), and because it feels insulting to tell the singer to take a hike for an entire song. Any member of a band should only be missing if there's a damn good reason for it. Neither of the two instrumentals here sound like they do, at least not as I hear them.

Those missteps are a shame, because songs like "Made From Sunshine", "The Connection Plan", and "Proper Jack Froster" are so good it hurts to hear the album take the kind of stumble that is hard to recover from. The core songs to the album are fantastic, and if it was presented to us as an EP, I would be saying this is truly glorious, and a proper send-off to their fallen member. But it wasn't, and I'm not. As an album, the flaws are glaring, and distracting. "Welcome To The Planet" is still a good album, but it's not one that leaves me with untarnished warm feelings. Both because of what the album means, and how it's put together, it's a bittersweet success.