SWAN HUNTER

Good performances as expected. But, for me, the highlight of this EP is Longdon singing Summer Lease, a Filkins era song, from a release that frequently turns up at the top of my list of Big Big Train albums: The Difference Machine. It was that release that had me playing it over and over and started my following this band. I would like to hear more of Longdon's stronger voice on more tracks from DM or even Gathering Speed. It seems that Spawton just matured as a songwriter and composer at GS. And it's not so much that Filkins is a bad vocalist, but I find it very reasonable to say that Longdon, who sings one of my all-time favorite BBT songs, The Wide Open Sea, is the strongest vocalist that they have had.

In the end, what really drags this release down is my lack of interest in hearing a bunch of version of the same song.