Woodcut. Big Big Train

What does it sound like?:

There is a good chance that many reviews of this, Big Big Train’s 16th album, will use words like ‘epic’, ‘grand’ and ‘sweeping’, when describing Woodcut and, musically, that would be justified. Yet somehow, this band of master musicians has created an album so personal, so intimate and so intense that it almost beggars belief.

Prog concept albums are usually huge statements, with majestic vistas and complex plots, aren’t they? Woodcut is about a craftsman cutting wood so, how can they turn that into sixty-six minutes of stunning storytelling?

If you doubt that it is possible then you don’t know Big Big Train.

The troubled path that Gregory Spawton and his talented band has had to walk in the past few years has not only given them strength together but has hardened their resolve. Losing singer and writer, David Longdon might have crushed some bands. How on earth do you carry on after losing that ocean of talent, that quiet but dominating presence?

Gregory found Alberto Bravin, the former member of PFM, the Italian who loved David’s writing and, most importantly, loved David’s voice, in every way that the term, ‘voice’ can be used. In Bravin, Spawton found another soulmate, another writer and another frontman for his band.

With the first album of The Bravin-era, 2024’s The Likes of Us, the band established several things. Firstly, that they were still a force in the realm of British Progressive Rock. Secondly, that they hadn’t thrown their history out with the bath-water and, thirdly, that they were becoming a more collective and inclusive group.

Woodcut reinforces all three of those characteristics but especially the third one. Woodcut is the most collaborative BBT album yet.

The introduction of the character of The Artist is heralded by a flute, a beautiful echo back to times past, and times lost. And then, we’re off on the woodcutter’s journey as he grapples with the weight of his creativity, which violinist, Clare Lindley, beautifully captures in her lyric;

“To carve a thousand birds and never hear them sing.”

The Artist, weighed down by his mental frailty, wanders deep into a thick forest where he finds a piece of heartwood which inspires him. As he works on it, he becomes aware that something else is controlling his hand, that darker forces may be overtaking him. His journey to find the truth fills this album with drama and beauty, at one and the same time.

Vocally, Alberto Bravin is magnificent, his voice swooping and climbing almost effortlessly. He is joined by Clare Lindley, drummer Nick d’Virgilio and keyboardist Oskar Holdorff who all take lead vocals at some point during the story. Rikard Sjöblom has always been a wonderful guitarist but even he surpasses anything he has done before, on this album. During the track Albion Press there’s an introduction to a solo when his wah-wah guitar comes roaring out of the speakers like a fighter plane, screaming down from the heavens. His epic solo at the end of the album, in Counting Stars, is simply breathtaking and will have live audiences standing and shouting their appreciation. He even slips in a lovely nod to his BBT mentor, Dave Gregory, by sounding exactly like him in the song, Light Without Heat. Holdorff’s keyboards are magnificent, throughout the album. As he says, he was amazed at the range of vintage machines available to him at Sweetwater Studios in Indiana, where the bulk of the recording was done. His Hammond B3 growls and spits its way into your ears while his piano-playing is delicate and profound. The addition of Holdorff and Clare Lindley, at the same time as Bravin, has been the making of Big Big Train.

Musically, the album is everything a BBT fan loves; beautiful chord changes, uplifting crescendos, ( just ten minutes in, there is one that makes my eyes water and my heart sing,) and fantastic musicianship. The recurring themes are unforgettable and Bravin, in his role as producer, has planted plenty of Easter eggs, enough to keep everyone guessing and searching.

Spawton and Bravin have described Woodcut as one 66-minute song, a sly wink to the fans who love their 20 plus-minute epics, but it really does feel like that. I have played it dozens of times in the four weeks that I’ve had it but not once have I not played it from start to finish.

This is Big Big Train’s best album…so far. It is at once jaw-dropping, yet tender; unbelievably huge, yet small and personal. The fact that they can achieve this on their 16th album, after everything they have been through, is simply wonderful.

It is a masterpiece.

One day, Big Big Train will play this album, all sixty-six glorious, magnificent minutes of it, at The Royal Albert Hall, and I will be there, front and centre, to see them do it.

Writer, Andy Stuart, has produced a wonderful book to accompany the album. ‘Woodcut: The Making and the Meaning’ is a beautiful piece of work featuring, interviews with the band, photos from the recording sessions and some wonderful writing from Stuart. His description of the history of the art of woodcutting is a wonderful way to draw his audience into this slightly mysterious and ancient world and, coupled with his take on the story within the album, makes for an essential companion to Woodcut itself.

What does it all *mean*?

It means that Big Big Train will win Album of the Year at The Prog Awards.

Goes well with…

A set of great speakers or headphones.

Release Date:

6th February 2026

Might suit people who like…

…opening a vinyl album and listening to it while looking at the beautiful artwork, reading the lyrics and getting lost in a world of their own. Remember that?

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