THE UNDERFALL YARD

Just like the Koh-i-Noor diamond which is part of the British Royal Family's Crown Jewels, this album is a flawless gem, an album such as which only comes around rarely. On every level of inspection The Underfall Yard achieves the highest results, whether its the album's theme, the superbly crafted compositions, the moving and insightful lyrics, the excellent musicianship, multi-part vocals (and oh what wonderful lead singing from David Longdon), the clever use of a brass ensemble in places, the crisp and crystal clear production or the superb album artwork. Individually these elements are all worth at least 4*s but taken as a complete package TUY is nothing less than "a masterpiece of progressive rock music" - so 5*s it is.

I won't talk specifically about each track as others have amply covered this previously, especially as its very difficult to pick out one track over an other - but the 23" long title track does have 'epic' written all over it.

Crossover prog may be a fair label to put on Big Big Train if one assesses their total musical output, but I'd venture to suggest that this latest album is as good a Symphonic Prog album as you'll find anywhere and would compare favourably against anything Yes or Genesis produced in their 70s prime.

Now, it just remains for me to see if and when BBT are going to perform The Underfall Yard live -- a journey, like the album itself, which should be enormously rewarding.