Back when I was a kid, there used to be a little “mom-and-pop”
\nrecord store a bike ride away from where I lived. They had a great
\ncollection of cut-out albums, where I found many a treasure. I
\nremember one day, when I found my cut-out copy of AC\/DC’s
\nFly On The Wall<\/i>, there were a bunch of copies of this album
\nby a group named Marillion. Not having the money to buy both albums
\n(and, at the time, being too chicken to try out a group I had never
\nheard), I left it in the bins to collect dust.<\/p>\n
The better part of today, I have been kicking myself — hard —
\nin the ass. When my foot got tired, I got Mrs. Thelen to tee up a
\nfew good shots (and, believe me, Mrs. Thelen doesn’t need to be
\nasked twice).<\/p>\n
So why have I opened up a can of Texas whup-ass on myself?
\nSimple — I just finished listening to the latest release by
\nMarillion,
\nThis Strange Engine<\/i>, and plainly put, it blew me away.<\/p>\n
The “glory” days of the band (to some fans, when Fish led the
\ngroup) are long gone, but Steve Hogarth has definitely turned this
\nband into his own. His vocals are powerfully unique — more of a
\nresonating plead that lulls you in before you recognize what’s
\ngoing on. Steve Rothery’s guitar work is just muscular enough to
\nshow you his talents without going into the bottomless pit of
\nfeedback. Keyboardist Mark Kelly, bassist Pete Trewevas and drummer
\nIan Mosley flesh out the band’s sound in their own special ways,
\ncreating a band that often sounds like several playing.<\/p>\n
“Man Of A Thousand Faces” is a prime example. A gentle, folky
\nrhythm is built up to surround Hogarth and Rothery’s contributions,
\nturning the first half of this number into a poignantly beautiful
\nsong. If this weren’t enough, Marillion manages to change tempo and
\nstyle so smoothly that if you blinked, you probably missed the
\nchange; the multi-tracked vocals on this one just must be
\nheard.<\/p>\n
Though
\nThis Strange Engine<\/i> contains only eight tracks, Marillion
\nmakes — for the most part — the best use of their disc’s time.
\nThe title track could easily have been two or three songs by
\nthemselves, and the band is kind enough to provide short breaks in
\nbetween movements to signal the style change. (They do, however,
\ncommit one of the cardinal sins of putting on damn near ten minutes
\nof dead air before sliding into the obligatory 90-second “hidden”
\ntrack. Whoever started this trend, I want to take them out back and
\nslap them silly.)<\/p>\n
From folk-style numbers such as “Eighty Days” to rockers like
\n“An Accidental Man,” Hogarth and crew show easily why this band has
\nbuilt up such a large and dedicated cult following — a following
\nso strong, that it is my understanding their American fans took up
\na collection to bring the band to these shores for a tour. Now
\n
\nthat<\/i>
\n<\/b> is amazing!<\/p>\n
Their sound has had its influence felt; often I wondered if I
\nwas listening to October Project, another band whose work was all
\nbut ignored. And this, kids, is what we call in the business a
\nGod-Damn Shame. Cookie-cutter flavors of the month can attract our
\nattention for their fifteen minutes of fame, but bands like
\nMarillion keep getting pushed aside for another passing fancy.<\/p>\n
But for a band so good, I’m left wondering how we could have
\nignored them for so long — I don’t even remember such stalwarts
\nlike WXRT-FM in Chicago playing Marillion. (If anyone at WXRT is
\nreading and wishes to correct me, I’m all ears.) I mean, these guys
\naren’t shred-your-eardrums metal, they’re not power-pop… they’re
\nMarillion.<\/p>\n
Ah,
\n
\nthis<\/i>
\n<\/b> could be the problem! Just like XTC, whom we talked about
\nyesterday, Marillion has constantly been forging ahead on their own
\nrules with their own sound — and what doesn’t fit into a
\npre-defined format wallows in the cold.<\/p>\n
Well, no more —
\nThis Strange Engine<\/i> is an album that is deserving of your
\ncritical ear. One listen, and you won’t be able to stop playing it.
\nIt’s made me more interested in searching out previous works and
\nlearning about what I could have been enjoying for 14 years.<\/p>\n
If
\nThis Strange Engine<\/i> isn’t the best album of 1997, it’s damn
\nnear the top of my list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5884],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-35814","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-marillion","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35814"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}