Pre-Order arrived Saturday, East Coast Racer is on auto replay, one of their very best, just hoping these guys are gigging before Station Masters.
Maybe too soon to tell, but I think this one is even better than Part One. Though I haven't invested that much time into Part One. I tend to dislike seperate released parts1&parts2. In my experience I always (Galahad, Jolly, Beardfish, this band) wait out the second part, and then treat them like the double album they should have been.
I read somewhere that BBT will be releasing a deluxe version of English Electric as a 2 CD set, including all the songs from parts 1 and 2, of course, plus a few new ones, maybe? The track sequence may be different from the individual releases as well. The new tracks would be available separately for those who already bought parts 1 and 2 and don't want to repurchase them. I'll definitely be buying this, as I only purchased the downloads of the individual EE albums, so far.
I doubt it's a commercial nonsense: BBT strikes me as a band with quite a lot of business sense. English Electric is an immense album - nearly two hours of music compared with an hour and a quarter for Quadrophenia, an hour and twenty minutes for The Wall or an hour and a half for The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Even in prog terms, it's a monster, and there's very little musical repetition from track to track. Had they released it as a double album straight away, it would be a very niche product for the simple reason that people wouldn't have been able to digest it: the sheer density and detail is amazing.
Instead, they've done it as separate releases, which is completely warranted by the strength of the material, and I assume that they've planned their pressings so that they sell out each edition.
Personally, I bought the separate albums and plan to buy the double album as well, both for myself and as presents for other people. Sounds like commercial sense to me!
I don't know how much business sense their approach to English Electric releases makes - only time will tell, but their reasons were stated in the interview I read (which I can't find at the moment), and I believe they were in line with what Sordel mentions above. I'll try to find the interview and post a link here.
Having only purchased downloads so far, I eagerly await the release of the complete English Electric in a physical set.
I'll be upset if I have to re-buy the CD's as a double package to get extra tracks...
mind you if those extra tracks are also included on the BBT rarities CD that is supposed to be coming, I'll be
less upset.
"Angels die, redemption rages
The age of man on an empty page
And chances are
This will save your soul or break it forever "
Here's a link to the two parts of the interview I mentioned above:
http://progarchy.com/2013/02/05/brow...erview-part-i/
http://progarchy.com/2013/02/06/medi...rview-part-ii/
Here's what Greg Spawton says about releasing parts 1 and 2 separately (found at the top of the second link, above):
"You’ve put your finger on something that has caused us a fair bit of soul-searching Brad. At first, we had a fairly straightforward view on this which was simply: ‘it’s a double album, but we’ll split it into two separate releases’. Our reasoning was that 2 hours of music is a lot for the listener to get their head around which can initially cause under-appreciation of the double album in question. We were also aware that if you release so much music at one time, you get one round of publicity then the world moves on. If you split the release into two, the band is in the spotlight for a longer period of time. The only downside to this release strategy is that English Electric becomes seen as two separate pieces of work and so we always planned to release a special double edition bringing it all together. The thing is though, and as your question makes clear, it’s not as simple as we thought it would be. If you’re splitting an album into two you do have to try to make two satisfying separate halves, which is what we have tried to do. And that isn’t the same as sequencing a whole double album. So, the question we began to ask is: what do we do when we prepare the double Full Power edition? Do we simply stick Part One and Two together or do we start from scratch and re-sequence it as a double album? You mention Hedgerow as being a strong concluding track but we’ve also got Curator of Butterflies which is, we think, another strong end-piece. Which one of those takes precedence and gets to close the double album? And what happens with the three extra tracks we’re including? Where do they fit in? What we now think we’ll do is to start again from scratch and re-sequence Full Power as a double album without any reference to the orders on EE1 and EE2. It may be that we find some of the sequencing on EE1 and EE2 also works for EEFP and if it does, it does. Or it may be that the sequencing is completely different. In any case, the additional tracks will inevitably change the feel of things. The other question you raise is what happens when EEFP is released? Does that mean that EE1 and EE2 should go out of print? If not, will any new listeners buy them or will they go straight to EEFP? This is, I think, something we’ll have to keep under review. If EEFP turns out to feel like a very different listening experience to EE1 and EE2, then it makes sense to keep them all in print. Of course, the extra tracks will also be available on an EP and as downloads to make sure listeners don’t feel obligated to buy a double album just to hear three new songs. So, for many people their experience of English Electric will be as three separate releases."
I wasn't familiar with the progarchy.com site before finding this interview. The interviewer has published a ton of stuff about BBT recently, including a review of EE2:
http://progarchy.com/author/bradbirzer/
I like the idea of two releases. Both albums are brilliant. English folk songs for the 21st century.
Any word on vinyl for part 2? I hope they do release vinyl for part 2.
I've now listened to this twice, and my first impression was that this album is very, very good stuff but not easy to 'tune in' to the contours of the songs straight away; my second impression was that it's better than that, and some memorable songs are beginning to hit the mark. I tend to find that Big Big Train stuff often doesn't click completely on the first couple of listens, so I expect the third and fourth listens will be enriching and confirm this as a very good album. I've got no problem at all with the band issuing two separate albums - Greg Spawton is absolutely right that the music is more digestible and memorable (and worthy of media coverage) divided into two halves. But I don't really see how this works as an individual double album; if they do reissue them together in a different sequence and with extra tracks, I might just buy the EP of the separate tracks instead.
Still, I like the James Bond-esque bit at the end of the credits, which says "Big Big Train will return..." ;-)
Now in stock:
https://www.lasercd.com/node/9617
$13 to get the physical copy, plus shipping. 4.99 GBP ($7.50 in USD terms) to get the CD quality FLAC download from bigbigtrain.bandcamp.com with a printable fully contained booklet. You can also hear the full songs there before you purchase. Your choice.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
First reviews are up over at ProgArchives.
High Vibration Go On - R.I.P. Chris Squire
Ken, you'll be hearing from me tomorrow.
edit: order is now complete!
Last edited by Jerjo; 03-04-2013 at 03:34 PM.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
I listened to EE Part Two on Bandcamp, and I agree it didn't "grab" me right away... it sort of subtly hooked me, much more than "The Underfall Yard" did. Now I'll have to get both EE albums. Damn this "keeping on a budget" thing.
After listening all the way through twice, I still think it is probably my favorite yet. Pretty deep stuff. Tracks 1,2,4 & 7 are all favorites, with the opening 'East Coast Racer' probably my very favorite, but it is very consistent. Every song is quite good. So very well arranged and produced.
Often with Prog, one's experience on listening to a new album is "yessss, this is what I was looking for!" or "meh" but Big Big Train albums don't affect me quite that way. The quality of the music is obvious, but it takes a lot of listening to work out whether you're hearing "the best thing ever" or (just!) another highly crafted album. That's one reason why I've been listening like crazy for the last few days and not trying to rush in with a verdict on where the strengths and weaknesses are.
Of course, EE part one was my Album of the Year last year and The Underfall Yard is heading for all-time favourite territory, so I'm more than confident to say that this is another very good album ... but it's taking me a while to work out exactly how far into 5* territory this album will eventually end up.
It doesn't help that I'm simultaneously facing a similar internal struggle with The Raven That Refused To Sing ...
Yeah, the "Yard" had me immediately. EE1, not so much but I grew to like it. EE2 on the first pass left me with no earworms, so will need additional listens. In general I liked the epic character of East Coast Racer, and the overall feeling of Curator of Butterflies best so far.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
I am behind regarding BBT, and had my first listen to Far Skies Deep Time.yesterday, followed by a couple more listens. To my ears it sounds pretty good, just a little behint TUY. Wondering where others rank it at this time?
Just got my copy of EE1, and EE2 is on it's way, but I wanted to absorb FSDT first.
Excellent question. I've got all their albums other than Bard and it takes an absolute age to get to know these albums ... there are some on which I just haven't even spun. My impression, though, is that The Difference Engine is a more modern-sounding, in-your-face sort of album (just reaching for a comparison I'd mention Milliontown, but that could be way off). Gathering Speed is more like their current work, and it's interesting as a concept album (set during the Battle of Britain). English Boy Wonders and Goodbye To The Age Of Steam are the two I've barely touched. (Not because I'm avoiding them but because even one album of Big Big Train is a big listening challenge and I like to spread it out.)
I'd be very interested to hear other people's more informed views on the back catalogue.
No need to hold out, the previous albums are all masterpieces, in fact I prefer them to the later stuff - more electric and traditionally prog, whereas the later stuff is getting more acoustic and folky. Bard might take some tracking down though. You might want to ckeck out the original English Boy Wonders from 1997 - I still prefer that to the remake.
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