If I may be so bold, I am The Manic Whale‘s new long player “Bumper Book Of Mystery Stories” is the best album I have heard since Big Big Train’s 2009 “The Underfall Yard”.

IATMW create witty, intelligent, energetic, quirky, and extremely English prog rock. They are just my cup of (proper English) tea. Since their inception they’ve made consistently Good Albums and I have been happy to recommend them to others on that basis – but I consider BBOMS to be their first Great Album, and one about which I must rave.

It’s prog, so is it a concept album…? Not so much – but then again it depends on your definition, so maybe, because it’s totally about everything good I remember about my 70s/80s childhood (how did they know?), and probably about yours too. It’s about the geeky and spooky stories we heard, read, watched – sometimes quite macabre, sometimes nostalgic – a bit of sci-fi here and there, some weird folk tales too – all the things we though were a bit odd at the time, but which made our youth pretty damned interesting.

A blow-by-blow track listing is beyond my powers right now – but in my opinion there is not a single average track on the album – each tells a different story, and ecletically so. The musicianship is top notch, and, coming out of Rob Aubrey’s Aubitt Studios, the production values are also absolutely splendid.

I will call out 2 standout tracks – Nautilus (you can surely guess what that’s about?) and Ernő’s Magic Cube (again, if you were awake in the 80s you’ll know).

The promo video for the latter is here. Epic!