Elegies to Lessons Learnt is I Like Trains' first studio album, and was released on 1 October 2007.
As with their earlier EP, Progress Reform, many of the songs cover historical events.[1] Each B-Side (indented here) tells a different aspect of the same story as its single.
"We All Fall Down" is about the plague epidemic of 1665 in Eyam, Derbyshire, which killed 260 people and left only 83 alive.
"The Deception" tells of Donald Crowhurst, who attempted to cheat in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in 1968–1969, but disappeared from the race, presumed to have become insane and committed suicide.
"Joshua" is an instrumental telling the story of Bernard Moitessier, another competitor in the Golden Globe Race, who abandoned the race while in a strong position to win and instead circled the globe one and a half times until he reached Tahiti.
"Victress" tells the story of Nigel Tetley, another competitor in the Golden Globe Race, who became the first person to circumnavigate the globe solo non-stop, but then sank 1,200 miles before completing the race.
"The Voice Of Reason" refers to the attempted assassination of George III by James Hadfield in 1800.
"Death of an Idealist" is about the British MPJohn Stonehouse, who faked his own death in 1974 and lived in Australia, to escape his burdening debt, before being found by Interpol.
"More Weight" tells story of Giles Corey, a farmer who was crushed to death by stone weights during the Salem Witch Trials, in an attempt to force a plea from him.
"Come Over" is about Conrad Schumann, a 19-year-old East German soldier who defected by jumping across the Berlin Wall while it was being built in 1961.
"I Am Murdered" is about the same assassination from Spencer Perceval's own point of view. The title consists of Perceval's last words.
"Victress", which was released before this album, alludes to the album title with the lyrics "I sing elegies to lessons I will never learn" which are sung during the second verse.
A DVD version of the album was released on 21 April 2008, and coincided with a tour and the release of "We Go Hunting" as a single.
