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Anteater · 12-31-2013, 09:10 PM

1. Big Big Train - English Electric: Full Power

Genre: Progressive/Art Rock, English Folk, Power Pop

Sounds Like: 70's Genesis, early Chicago, Elbow, The Byrds, The Beatles

So...unfortunately I've never been to England before. And as far as I know, any English blood I have is three generations back on my mother's side. Hell, I was probably Hungarian or something in a past life. It stands to reason, then, that a band as quintessentially British like modern day proggers Big Big Train shouldn't really connect with me as much as they do. And yet somehow I'm always returning to their beautiful and peculiarly modern yet nostalgia-inducing take on the 70's Genesis sound.

Seriously, nothing makes my #1 in any year unless its something very special, and the music on this complete double LP compilation of English Electric Parts 1 & 2 is mindblowingly sublime when taken as a whole. Nothing else could be numero uno for me in 2013. You really should just take my word for it, but the devil is in the details I suppose...

At a grand total of 19 songs (all of which are perfect in their own respective ways), this is pound for pound the best progressive rock album of the year. Maybe the best album of the year in any genre actually. As the album title implies, you have a collection that's a time machine back to the U.K.'s industrial age, with each shot serving as a snapshot in time of an event (the song 'The First Rebreather' chronicles Alexander Lambert's famous Rebreather-dive into Severn Tunnel in 1880) or stories about the people who carved out England's history (literally or otherwise). Highlights include the 15-minute 'East Coast Racer', a triumphant number which swells into one of the best song climaxes I've ever heard around 8 or so minutes in, featuring an entire orchestra of horns, strings and woodwinds. Or how about the power pop waltz of 'Leopards'? Maybe the sheer heart wrenching piano-led closer 'Curator Of Butterflies', possibly the best ballad I've ever laid ears upon in 20 years? There's enough great songs here to fill three albums by any of your favorite non-black metal/death metal/grindcore bands!

It doesn't hurt that everyone involved in BBT is a musical phenomenon either. Lead vocalist and flautist David Longdon has a warm, emotive voice on par with Peter Gabriel at his prime, whilst you have former XTC guitar wunderkind Dave Gregory on lead guitar and drummer virtuoso Nick D'Virgillo (of Spock's Beard, Tears For Fears and Cirque du Soleil fame). Add in founding members Greg Spawton (guitar/keyboards) and bassist Andy Poole, and you have a monstrous lineup that equals any of the best in rock history.

In the same way that people look back on albums like Trespass, Foxtrot and Selling England By The Pound as landmark progressive rock albums of the 1970's, there is no doubt in my mind that Big Big Train have solidified their place in music canon with the complete English Electric experience. It not only compares favorably....I'd say it eclipses them all. Eat your heart out Gabriel, and a happy New Year to all of you.