I have spent the better part of a year now listening to
\nMisplaced Childhood<\/i>, the third full-length studio release
\nfrom British prog-rockers Marillion. No joke; I’ve spent more time
\nthan I’d like to admit listening to the original release on
\nCapitol, and now this two-disc remastered, expanded edition, trying
\nto decipher exactly what is going on in the storyline.<\/p>\n
After a year of this, I can finally step forward and say: I
\nstill don’t have a clear picture, nor do I ever believe I will. All
\nI know is that
\nMisplaced Childhood<\/i> is an incredible album, though the
\nexpanded version does suggest a bit of overkill.<\/p>\n
This disc was the release that made Fish and company recognized
\nnames in America, thanks to the minor hit “Kayleigh”. Why this song
\ndidn’t become an absolute smash hit I don’t understand; it’s got a
\ncatchy chorus, is well-written and executed, and succeeds on many
\ndifferent levels. But it rightfully did garner the lads some
\nattention, and still sounds as fresh today as it did back in
\n1985.<\/p>\n
Let’s focus in on the album proper for a while. This release,
\nwhich runs without segues between the songs, tells the story of a
\nyoung man who is forced to face off against the demons of his
\nchildhood after breaking up with his love. One could question how
\nmuch of this was autobiographical, as the sequencing of songs and
\nthe subject matters seem to occasionally stray into areas that
\nappear to be too close to reality for the band. Check out the
\nreferences to songwriting in “Kayleigh” or the piece “Lords Of The
\nBackstage” if you need proof.<\/p>\n
In the end, it appears that our hero discovers the answers he
\nwas looking for – amazingly, they’re within himself, as we learn in
\n“Childhood’s End” – but also discovers that had he continued in the
\nrelationship which ended, it would have led to disaster anyhow. And
\nwhile the album proper ends on a note of hope with “White Feather,”
\nit suggests that the story is far from complete.<\/p>\n
The first time you sit down to the original content of
\nMisplaced Childhood<\/i>, it might seem difficult to get through,
\ndue to the heavier lyrical content as well as the fact there are no
\nbreaks between the songs. Yet the album flows naturally, and it
\nsubsequent listens allow the listener to discover the intrinsic
\nbeauty of the music and words. Even after listening to these songs
\nas intensely as I have over the last year, I have yet to tire of
\nthis album.<\/p>\n
One would tend to think that
\nMisplaced Childhood<\/i> could only be made better with the
\ninclusion of some singles and the original demo version of the
\nalbum. Sure, singles like “Lady Nina” and “Freaks” are fun to
\nlisten to, and though they get a little redundant, hearing singles
\nfor “Kayleigh,” “Lavender” and “Heart Of Lothian” are interesting.
\nBut hearing the entire
\nMisplaced Childhood<\/i> album in two very similar forms back to
\nback does get to be on the tedious side, even with a slightly
\nmodified track order and one piece cut from the final work. The
\ninclusion of this piece is for the diehard fans.<\/p>\n
Still,
\nMisplaced Childhood<\/i> remains Marillion’s high-water mark – at
\nleast for the Fish era of the band. How could the band try to top
\nsuch a work? The answer: they wouldn’t… at least, not
\nimmediately, with the release of the
\nBrave Encounter<\/i> EP, which we’ll take a look at soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5884],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36729","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\/36729","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=36729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36729"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36729"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}