Biography
Marillion is
one of the many bands that surfaced during the early 80s
as part of the so-called 'neo-prog' movement, which brought
progressive rock back from the brink of extinction, and
has since lasted into the 90s. Most of the music
of these bands can be characterized by a heavy Genesis
influence and a more "mainstream", melodic and vocal-oriented
sound. Though these characteristics would tend to
shift a little by the 90s, a general accepted trait of
this sub-genre is a more commercial sound to varying degrees.
Many of these bands suffer criticism from prog purists
for their tendency to streamline progressive rock and lessen the complexity
of the music. Most neo-prog that I've heard has
been primarily uninteresting, but for whatever reason
Marillion has definitely been able to pull a heart string
or two. They truly were blueprint band for the entire movement,
and as such absorb much of both the praise and criticism.
In my opinion,
the first four Marillion albums are powerful, emotional
rock music with definite progressive tendencies.
On first listen, lead vocalist Fish's voice sounds strikingly
similar to Peter Gabriel's, and this in particular seems
to be where much of the comparison comes from. Upon
further examination however, Fish's lyrical tone and subject
matter definitely borrow far more from Van Der Graaf Generator's
Peter Hammill than from Gabriel. Overall though,
Marillion have a highly morose and darkly romantic atmosphere
that, while not being overly complex compared to past
prog bands, is very much their own. In fact, it's
Marillion themselves that are cited as a prime influence when
people describe other neo-prog bands, illustrating that they
had a distinctive enough sound to become recognizable in
the work of other artists. Also, since Genesis and
Van Der Graaf Generator are two of my absolute favorite
bands, I find Marillion's early output difficult not to
like for what it is.
After Fish was replaced
with Steve Hogarth my interest in the band takes a precipitous
decline. Even highly touted post-Fish releases like Season's
End and Brave failed to really excite me. On
one hand they sound absolutely nothing like Genesis or Van Der
Graaf Generator anymore, but it they also dump any kind of urgency
or edge they may have had, sounding even less "progressive"
and frankly sorta boring. While the material has a tendency
to be brooding and dark, there's a lot of punch and life that
is totally absent. Marillion's first four studio albums
are all excellent and, though not the most complex material,
have a powerful emotional drive that makes them great, honest
and authentic rock music, "progressive" or not. - Greg Northrup [2001]
Script for a Jester's Tear (1983)
Marillion's Script
for a Jester's Tear is the album that contained the
definitive characteristics, as well as eventual clichés, that would mark the early 80s prog
rock revival and its aftermath. This album introduces
the band's dark, emotional and melodramatic style, with
heavy influence from Genesis sonically, with a touch of
Pink Floyd, as well as the overwrought vocal expressiveness
of Peter Hammill. Fish's vocals are strikingly similar
to those of Peter Gabriel at first, which is obviously the root
of much of the Genesis comparison. Like most of the neo-progressive
crowd, the band doesn't really do anything particularly
new or experimental on this album, but they do write damn
good songs.
Script...
is obviously the least original Marillion album, and is also
the one with the firmest foothold in the prog-rock style. As such,
it can be overly cloying and reverential, and many of the obvious Genesis-isms
are fairly cheesy. Another common complaint made about Script...
is the plodding, unexciting drumming, and there is certainly some truth to
that. That said, the title track is one of their
signature songs, emotional and overwrought as usual, with
beautiful, soaring melodies and, depending on your tolerance for unabashed
and over the top melodrama, heart-wrenching vocals from
Fish. "He Knows You Know" has a nice, punchy rhythmic
base that accentuates Fish's biting vocal lines.
"The Web" features some intense keyboard playing, and "Garden
Party" and "Chelsea Monday" are two more dark Marillion hallmarks.
Great melodies and great vocals as usual.
Overall, Script
for a Jester's Tear is a solid album, though obviously
derivative, and sees a still growing band relying on genre clichés where their own identity wasn't
sufficient. Indeed, the overt melodrama and heavy-handedness tends
to wear thin by the end of the album as well. All
of these complaints would be remedied to some extent later in Marillion's
career, particularly on the Misplaced Childhood and
Clutching at Straws albums.
- Greg Northrup
[2001]
Click Here for Tracklist and Lineup
Info
Fugazi (1984)
Fugazi sees Marillion developing a more
unique style, but is also their most inconsistent work.
This album is by far the darkest and heaviest of the first four,
and songs like the opener, "Assassing" even have a hard
rock feel to them. As usual, much of the album is not very "progressive"
at all, but still bears some excellent music. "Punch and Judy" is another
strong track with a powerful vocal line and a biting keyboard
riff courtesy of Mark Kelly. After the two outstanding
opening tracks, the album goes into a bit of a slump.
"Jigsaw" is an okay ballad, but overall Marillion seems
to lose their way somewhat, as less the cohesive and unnecessarily drawn
out material on the next two songs falls flat, indeed
reeking of filler. The last two tracks are a return
to form and restore the overall integrity of the work,
"Incubus" having a particularly addictive groove to it.
Overall, this is probably
the least interesting of the first four Marillion albums, but
still worth getting if into the band. It's darker and
heavier without a doubt, but also contains significant portions
of unfocused dabbling. -
Greg Northrup [2001]
Click Here for Tracklist and Lineup Info
Misplaced Childhood (1985)
This
is one of the great progressive rock albums of the 80s,
if not the apex of the entire neo-progressive rock
revival (although IQ's Tales from the Lush Attic
and the band's own Clutching at
Straws are more than worthy ). The Genesis influencontendersce
is still present, but also incorporated more fully
is a Pink Floyd tendency, as well as Fish's more mature
and less ridiculous narrative style. The album
is nothing close to being as derivative as the first album,
nor is it as unfocused as Fugazi. Instead,
all of Marillion's strengths are played up here, and all
the pieces slide together perfectly. The arrangements
are fairly sparse and simple, driving by Fish's intoxicating
, a mind-numbing journestory liney into the depths of one
man's consciousness. Every song flows together pretty
much, giving this album a successful continuity and, for
better or worse, the famed "concept album" label.
The album
opens up with a couple of hit singles which I despise, "Kayleigh"
and "Lavender". Annoyingly catchy and lyrically mundane,
I never fail to skip past them. The album proper begins
with the awesome "Bitter Suite" and goes right through until
the end, meshed together beautifully, and containing incredible,
melodic rock music full of superb hooks and soaring guitar.
Not the most complex, experimental or even the least bit
groundbreaking progressive rock album you'll ever hear,
but highly enjoyable nonetheless. - Greg Northrup [2001]
Click Here for Tracklist and Lineup
Info
Clutching At Straws (1987)
Clutching
at Straws is the fantastic follow up to Marillion's
Misplaced Childhood, and is easily the band's best album.
It's delivered in much the same way as its predecessor,
as a sort of concept record in which all the songs
flow together, but if anything is significantly darker and
more desperate than Misplaced Childhood. Most
of Marillion's work is not really that "progressive" in
the traditional sense, and Clutching at Straws
is even less so. The positive
aspect of this is that Marillion
concentrates fully on creating mood and emotion, as always, but by
this time the band had developed the identity and (relative) sense of subtlety
to pull things off
This album is
engaging, depressing and moody right from the beginning,
following in the successful stylistic crystallization that
occurred on the previous album. The band is poised
and mature here and everything sounds perfect.
While it is definitely their most consistent album, it would
also unfortunately be the band's last with vocalist Fish,
who would leave to pursue a solo career. At least
he would leave on a high note, delivering what is perhaps
the band's magnum opus. Marillion would continue with
another, very different, singer in Steve Hogarth.
This record also foreshadows the turn the band's songwriting
would take in the future, towards more somber arrangements
with even less complexity. Though it works like a
charm here, the later albums sound fairly boring to me.
Regardless, Clutching at Straws is Marillion's finest
hour, and those who have difficulty stomaching the cheese
of the first few albums will find this one much more palatable.
- Greg Northrup [2001]
Click Here for Tracklist and Lineup Info
