Dazed #1: English Boy Wonders; Walk Into Light

Welcome to my new prog blog! I intend to write this in diary mode: short postings about prog albums, both older and brand new, I've recently listened. And off we go...


Listened to the 2008 re-issue of Big Big Train's second official album, English Boy Wonders, two days ago during a bicycle trek. I've never heard the original 1995 version but whatever improvements they did to it 13 years later must have been well thought out. It's such a great album with almost cinematic passages of dynamic variation and a constant flow of ideas and detail. For some reason I didn't warm up to it when I first listened to it but now it really opened up. Simply fabulous.




English Boy Wonders on Spotify



Yesterday I revisited Ian Anderson's first solo album, 1983's Walk Into Light. The technology and the soundscapes are irritatingly or heartwarmingly (take your pick) Eighties, but the songs are, for the most part, excellent, my favorites being Somewhere In England, The End Game and Looking For Eden. I see this pretty much as a twin to Tull's Under Wraps: snappy and quirky songwriting somewhat strangled by the mucho-synths production. I'd really like to see an album with all songs from these two albums rearranged and performed by some of the best current prog bands, one track for each band. Would be interesting, I believe, especially since Anderson is unlikely to return this material.

Walk Into Light on Spotify