Marillion: Are they really that bad?

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Yeah, I own the first four Marillion albums, but then I'm not an uptight hipster/dorky rock enthusiast either (even though I tend to collect anything I can get my hands on). There seems to be a general disgust of all things Marillion among many of you, but I'm quite entertained by them, especially "Misplaced Childhood", an album with hardly any prog pretenses at all. I just dig the vibe.

So what's the problem? Too cloying, bombastic, excessive, pretentious, bloated, melodramatic? A lot of good rock music contains all of those elements. So, what's the problem?

― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Thursday, 22 July 2004 01:09 (8 years ago) Permalink

I quite like Script of a Jester's Tear.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 22 July 2004 02:04 (8 years ago) Permalink

the last album with fish is a pretty good example of a break up album

― Robin Goad (rgoad), Thursday, 22 July 2004 06:58 (8 years ago) Permalink

The small soupcon of respect I have for Marillion comes from their being one of the first bands to fully embrace the possibilities of the internet aeons ago, selling their records independently to the fans via something called a "website". Admittedly this was because no label would touch them, but still.

And prolific too, in the face of quite overwhelming derision.

But to suggest "Misplaced Childhood" was an album with hardly any prog pretenses at all is a bit rum. "Clutching at Straws" was slightly club-smoky, mind.

― GG Marquez, Thursday, 22 July 2004 07:34 (8 years ago) Permalink

An oddly timely thread this one. After getting back from Cheap Trick last night my mate Jeff (who's always been a bit of a prog fan) put the new Marillion album on and I was amazed how good it was. A bit like Godspeed with a singer. In our drunken state we concluded Mark Kelly had always sounded like that and Godspeed ripped him off.

We may have been wrong.

Still, I'd listen to it again.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Thursday, 22 July 2004 13:20 (8 years ago) Permalink

I loved Misplaced Childhood when I was 11. Tried to listen to it again a couple of years ago and was horrified.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 22 July 2004 13:22 (8 years ago) Permalink

i've been enjoying 'Kayleigh' again recently. i thought the hook in the verses would make a good sample. someone then did this by mashing it up with Rakim

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Thursday, 22 July 2004 13:25 (8 years ago) Permalink

Double timely - don't they have a proper real life hit single at the moment? At number 16 of all places?

― GG Marquez, Thursday, 22 July 2004 13:33 (8 years ago) Permalink

Apparently their current singer is a decent sort. At a recent show, upon hearing that bootleggers were sellig Marillion hooded-tops outside:

"Hoodies? We don't sell those, go and get me one."

And then:

"Well, you feel for them, it's only one step up from selling the Big Issue."

― Ben Dot (1977), Thursday, 22 July 2004 13:40 (8 years ago) Permalink

yes, they are

― rentboy (rentboy), Thursday, 22 July 2004 13:50 (8 years ago) Permalink

I picked up "Script fo a Jester's Tear" (typo too funney to correct) and "Fugazi" in their fancy 2CD w/demo versions a few weeks ago, and have been meaning to write somethign about them ever since. "Script" sounds like the local band who lucked out and got time in a proper recording studio, "Fugazi" sounds much more "proper". The drummer on it is much, much better. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed them both. The later albums, with Steve Hogarth singing on them are great, genuinely underrated. Poss more later, but work is v busy @ present.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 22 July 2004 13:53 (8 years ago) Permalink

there have been 9 albums since the departure of fish - whoever said that was the sound of a band falling apart was pretty otm "if my owners let me have some free time some day, with all good intention i would probably run away" he sings and then promptly does.

whats come out since is pretty much a mixed bag, the high point being Afraid of Sunlight in, i think, 95. well worth a listen and may just have been succesful if they werent derided by then for being a poor mans genesis. Interestingly this one was banged out as a contract obligation for emi who were intent on getting shot after pouring money into their double concept album brave (the fans favourite, but somewhat patchy). The rest of the time they often spend too long perfecting stuff.

the recent album, marbles, is so-so. Can't say i'd heard any GY!BE influences on there - the reference points being far more obvious Massive attack, REM, Floyd (Gilmour Waters version), late Beatles.

Hogarth- or the self-styled h- also runs a legitimate side project the h band with i think richard barbieri, aziz, andy gangadeen of the bays and you sort of get the feeling he'd be off like a shot if this became succesful.

apart from AOS which may be worth a download, individual tracks worth trying: Go! , enlightened, this is the 21st century, a few words for the dead. if these don't do anything for you then you're not really going to care for the other stuff. they put on a nice show though.

― geoff, Thursday, 22 July 2004 14:28 (8 years ago) Permalink

One marillion fans can't all be wrong.

― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Thursday, 22 July 2004 15:05 (8 years ago) Permalink

I generally disregard the "prog" aspect of Marillion since its not wantonly over-the-top or complex. At their best, Fish era marillion was a solid rock band with some cool hooks and lyrics that just drip "guy at the end of the bar having a smoke and feeling sorry for himself." "Clutching at Straws" is a great 4am bar album. It's the self-pity of complete failure rather than the "why won't anyone listen to me?" angst of post-punk. Though there is plenty of whiny angst on "Jester's Tear."

― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Thursday, 22 July 2004 21:44 (8 years ago) Permalink

I remember liking "Incommunicado" at the time, but now it just sounds like bad Genesis.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 22 July 2004 21:57 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Incommunicado" isn't really that much like the rest of the album.

― James Slone (Freon Trotsky), Thursday, 22 July 2004 23:07 (8 years ago) Permalink

to answer the thread title: no.

i will out myself and make the incredibly uncool proclamation that their new album, Marbles, is not only good, but one of the best albums of this year; this is not the kind of thing I would ever have expected myself to say. allegedly steve wilson worked on this album and it sounds like it. Although I'm not really a fan of any porcupine tree albums from a songwriting or performance aspect, I do like the textures and soundscapes they've come up with, and Marbles is full of these.

Having been a fan of this band when I was 14 (and not much after that), I never really gave this version of the band a chance and snobbishly decided they were the pinnacle of uncool, as another thread on here suggests. Even a few years ago when I decided to dip back in, I gave Season's End, Holidays in Eden, Brave, and This Strange Engine all a listen: no go. There was just nothing here that appealed to me, I heard only bad power ballads and songs cluttery with instrumentation and poor arrangements. When I heard they'd gone all Bends-era Radiohead after that, I kind of rolled my eyes and figured them for poseurs reaching a desperate stage of their career and didn't bother. But this thread made me go slsk the rest of the records. There are some very high points, and for some reason I missed Afraid of Sunlight, at least half of which is exceptional. the .com album has some uneven stuff but Interior Lulu is pretty great and the last song, House, really does sound like some Colour of Spring outtake. But Marbles is like the good parts of AoS stretched out over two full albums. It has some of the historic elements that, lets face it, this band excelled at: the sustain in the guitar is great (if you like guitar) but never wanky, the multi-part songs (of which there are a few) flow logically and keep your interest. The album has the kind of magnificently melancholy tone that Gilmore-era Floyd tried to accomplish and kept failing at. Hogarth's vocals don't dip into that rockstar bellowy range I know he's capable of; the whole thing is quite restrained and, uh, artful, but not "arty". I'm sure that not a lot of people will buy this and it won't get any airplay but going by this album, there's no reason that elbow have cred and this band doesn't. I'm sure the name is an albatross they'd kind of like to shed but it's too late for that and they shouldn't have to. We all did things in our early 20s that we're embarassed about now; I'm sure they regard Fugazi with about as much tenderness as I regard that time I threw up on myself at a party.

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 06:48 (8 years ago) Permalink

Was this review helpful to you? ihttp://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001W8Q9Y/pd_ka_0/026-0253620-3461235

― JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 07:33 (8 years ago) Permalink

(well, it should have appeared a "YES" button instead of the link...)

― JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Tuesday, 3 August 2004 07:34 (8 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

"Kayleigh" is awesome. It's like some Dire Straits filtered through Hall and Oates 80s uber-fest.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 20 December 2005 01:20 (7 years ago) Permalink

6 years pass...

Just played Misplaced Childhood at our record club. Fucking hellfire. Could sing along with almost every word. Not played it since I was 12, 21 years ago.

― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 26 September 2012 20:32 (7 months ago) Permalink

record club?

― have a sandwich or ice cream sandwich (Jordan), Wednesday, 26 September 2012 20:34 (7 months ago) Permalink

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/

― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 26 September 2012 20:38 (7 months ago) Permalink

lol i saw them on that tour

― syntax evasion (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 26 September 2012 20:41 (7 months ago) Permalink

"The rain auditions at my window
Its symphony echos in my womb"

This seemed massively profound to me when I was 15, no idea why.

― don't slip in mud (Matt #2), Wednesday, 26 September 2012 20:47 (7 months ago) Permalink

ALL of Misplaced Childhood seemed amazingly profound when I was 11. Ring of violet bruises, cemetery eyes pseudo-silk kimono, all of it.

― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 26 September 2012 20:51 (7 months ago) Permalink

i have 'kayleigh' on my spotify playlist and it makes me feel super self-conscious whenever it comes up on shuffle

― ciderpress, Wednesday, 26 September 2012 21:03 (7 months ago) Permalink

actually just looked and i have 4 marillion songs on there! other 3 are 'incommunicado', 'he knows you know', and 'easter'. all dope jams imo. i'm slightly curious about what they sound like now since afaik they still exist

― ciderpress, Wednesday, 26 September 2012 21:06 (7 months ago) Permalink

'Incommunicado' is a fucking jam. I don't really like any of their other songs though.

― a great poke for Jet Set Willy (snoball), Wednesday, 26 September 2012 21:08 (7 months ago) Permalink

I heard Kayleigh recently for the first time in eons, what a horrible horrible digital 80s production, urgh. Just no life in it whatsoever. Basically IQ Tales From The Lush Attic pisses all over Marillion.

― don't slip in mud (Matt #2), Wednesday, 26 September 2012 21:09 (7 months ago) Permalink

that's unfair. maybe The Wake.

― syntax evasion (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 26 September 2012 21:17 (7 months ago) Permalink

That too!

― don't slip in mud (Matt #2), Wednesday, 26 September 2012 21:23 (7 months ago) Permalink

I was a fan as a kid. When I hear Fish-era tracks now I almost faint with embarrassment at the cringey lyrics and the fact that I lapped that shit up as a 12 year old.

― Pat Ast vs Jean Arp (MaresNest), Wednesday, 26 September 2012 21:28 (7 months ago) Permalink

I will rep for IQ for sure.

― Pat Ast vs Jean Arp (MaresNest), Wednesday, 26 September 2012 21:29 (7 months ago) Permalink

the lads of progressive ears are evaluating the new one, sounds that can't be made

http://www.progressiveears.com/forums/thread.asp?ForumID=1&TopicID=149253&posttime=9%2F26%2F2012+2%3A53%3A52+PM&page=1

― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 26 September 2012 22:32 (7 months ago) Permalink

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/marillion-misplaced-childhood-round-35-grahams-choice-of-weapon/

― comedy is unnatural and abhorrent (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 3 October 2012 17:07 (7 months ago) Permalink

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