(2021) Big Big Train - The Underfall Yard (2009, Remastered)    


Review:
2021 re-mixed reissue of ‘The Underfall Yard’ adds re-recorded versions of two songs plus a pair of brand new tracks to the original album. Big Big Train are proof that good things come to those who wait; the British prog flag bearers claimed their first Top 40 album with 2019’s Grand Tour, nearly 30 years after they formed. The Underfall Yard, released a decade earlier in 2009, was a key staging post on their long crawl to success. Big Big Train had already released five albums by that point, to various levels of acclaim from the prog cognoscenti, but this pushed things to the next level. Part of this was down to new frontman David Longdon, a man with a stellar, soulful voice, the range of which was matched by the emotion it carried – a scarce commodity in post-millennial prog. But a bigger reason for its success was musical. Big Big Train were prog traditionalists, and The Underfall Yard’s six tracks evoked the graceful musical world building of Genesis and Yes, not least on the 12-minute Victorian Brickwork and the 20-minute title track. “The Underfall Yard is where the story of the contemporary line-up of Big Big Train begins. For the re-issue we asked BBT mixing engineer Rob Aubrey to open up the original sessions and to completely remix the album so that we could make a definitive version,” explains Greg Spawton. “Rob had more time and a bigger budget to work with, plus the benefit of another decade of mixing experience. His new mix has significantly improved the sound and dynamic range of the album.” The new reissue feature a second companion CD features 48 minutes of material, including a new 2020 studio recording of the title track, preceded by a previously unreleased brass prelude. Also included is the Songs from the Shoreline suite, which was planned for the album’s original release in 2009. For this re-issue, in 2020 the band completely re-recorded Victorian Brickwork, which segues into Fat Billy Shouts Mine (which has to date only been available on the Far Skies, Deep Time EP). The final track on the second disc is Brew and Burgh, a newly composed song written by Big Big Train founder and bassist Greg Spawton specifically as a companion piece for this re-issue of the album. — loudersound


   


Track List:
01 - Evening Star
02 - Master James of St. George
03 - Victorian Brickwork
04 - Last Train
05 - Winchester Diver
06 - The Underfall Yard
07 - Songs from the Shoreline
08 - Prelude to the Underfall Yard
09 - The Underfall Yard (2020 Version)
10 - Brew and Burgh


Media Report:
Genre: prog-rock
Country: UK
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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