Fourteen years after their last album -- and 12 years after the death of their lead singer/songwriter
Stuart Adamson
--
Big Country
reunited to record
The Journey
. Well, "reunion" may be a bit of a stretch, as the only original members to appear on
are drummer
Mark Brzezicki
and guitarist
Bruce Watson
, who are joined by
Watson
's guitarist son
Jamie
, bassist
Derek Forbes
, and
Mike Peters
, former leader of
the Alarm
. Unsurprisingly,
often recalls the widescreen vistas of
, sounding a bit more anthemic and forceful than
, although there are certainly elements of classic
BC
here. "In a Broken Promise Land" elliptically refers to "In a Big Country," the same song is quoted in a synth line on "The Journey," and "Another Country" has a bit of that E-Bowed guitar roar, too, but where
Adamson
-era
contained traces of arty new wave flair to offset their earnestness, this is all very serious rock & roll, big-sounding songs about big things. These are
Peters
signatures and he sounds at home here with the reconstituted
, with everybody on board creating something of a throwback to the super-serious arena rock of the late '80s. It's not fun but it's not meant to be: it's a bunch of lifers in their middle age reconnecting with the things they found important back then. If that only appeals to the diehards, well, there's a reason for that: they're the only other ones who will find this surging alt-arena rock as vital, as necessary as the bandmembers themselves. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine