For around the last 12 years, Big Big Train have been at the forefront of the UK Progressive Rock 'scene', since the release of their 'breakthrough' album, The Underfall Yard (recently remastered and re-released). During that time the band has developed a line-up of musicians who have produced a steady stream of consistently well-crafted albums, and a trade-mark sound that has delighted and enthralled 'passengers' and others (and has been a bone of contention to others, too.)
The imminent release of a new album from any well-established band gives rise to much speculation and anticipation, none more so when that band has recently undergone substantial personnel changes. Since the warmly-received 'Grand Tour' in 2019, and partly as a consequence of the ensuing pandemic, three key members of the band - Dave Gregory, Danny Manners and Rachel Hall - have departed: all of whom contributed much to the overall sound of Big Big Train. How would their departure affected the feel of the music?
The release of 'Common Ground' answers some of those questions: and maybe the forthcoming tour in 2022 will provide further insights.
Common Ground has been for me a bit of an enigma. It is clearly Big Big Train, yet there are clear and obvious differences in the musical 'feel' of the album. For me, Danny's keyboards and Dave's guitars were an essential part of BBT's sound, as was Rachel's violin in recent years, and that just isn't there any more. Rikard Sjoblom brings his own touch to the keyboards, as do Dave Foster and Aidan O'Rourke to guitars and violin, but it's not the same to me.
Nick D'Virgilio is given more space to showcase his songwriting on the instrumental 'Apollo', and on 'All The Love We Can Give', but there is more than just a hint of Spock's Beard showing itself for me - maybe a direction of travel for the band as the composition duties are more widely shared in future? Big Big Beard, anyone?
David Longdon's voice continues to show great maturity and character, and on 'All The Love We Can Give' he finds a new register which put me in mind of Scott Walker (others mentioned Phil Oakey). His voice harmonises very well with Nick's and with Carly Bryant's, who brings a more forceful female voice to that of Rachel Hall. Greg Spawton's bass seems, to me, just a little more prominent on this album, which is never a bad thing.
The song-writing throughout is what you would expect, in that it is high-class, musically and lyrically. Opener 'The Strangest Times' is David Longdon's take on the past 18 months; similar in style to 'Alive' (from Grand Tour), and bringing in the BBT memes of fields, brooks and woods. 'Apollo' and 'Endnotes' both give space to the Brass ensemble to fill out the sound as only they can. 'Headwaters', the other instrumental track, gives Rikard some scope to explore the piano, though it doesn't quite have the jazz-tinged edge that previous piano pieces have had. 'Atlantic Cable' - a song about the laying of telecommunication links between the UK and US - also picks up the theme of Common Ground and our common humanity that echo through the collection: "we see the same stars/ walk the same ground/ lit by the same sun/ we could be one" [Black with Ink]; "we make new common ground/... we look up at the same stars/ see further as one." [Atlantic Cable]
And am I alone in spotting that the last line of the lyrics to 'Endnotes' - "down the river/ to the sea" almost echo the title of the band's first album, 30 years ago...?
