Some people might have found themselves saying at the release of
\nMarillion’s
\nThe Thieving Magpie (La Gazza Ladra)<\/i>, “Not
\nanother<\/i> live release.” Although this was the first
\nfull-length live effort from Fish and crew, it was the third such
\ncommercial release since the band’s debut.<\/p>\n
Little did some people know that this would end up being the
\nlast appearance of Fish with Marillion – and at least he goes out
\nwith a nice effort which occasionally feels a bit overblown.<\/p>\n
I can understand why a live album would be the point of order
\nfor the band at this time. On one side, they were about to undergo
\na major lineup change, and a live album could help bridge the gap.
\nOn the other side, Marillion had scored two successful albums in
\nAmerica with
\nMisplaced Childhood<\/i> and
\nClutching At Straws<\/i>, and the time to strike was now, while
\nthe iron was hot.<\/p>\n
The track selection for
\nThe Thieving Magpie<\/i> is actually well thought out, covering
\nall bases from their four albums to that point. There’s enough to
\nkeep the newer fans happy (“Sugar Mice,” “White Russian”), and
\nplenty of material from the two pre-hit era for those who had
\nfollowed the band from the beginning (“Punch & Judy,” “He Knows
\nYou Know,” “Fugazi”).<\/p>\n
If anything is interesting about this arrangement, it’s that all
\nthe material sounds good when it’s thrown together like this. It’s
\nnearly seamless, and played to note-perfect precision by the group.
\nYet occasionally it feels like Marillion is grasping to keep things
\ninteresting – as much as I can appreciate their inclusion, it might
\nnot have been the best of ideas to put two long songs (“Fugazi,”
\n“Script For A Jester’s Tear”) back to back. That said, the live
\nversion of “Script” does inject some new life into the track.<\/p>\n
Another interesting choice is their decision to perform the
\nentire
\nMisplaced Childhood<\/i> album on the second disc. Admittedly,
\nthey do an admirable job on it, proving that this marvel of the
\nstudio could be translated onto the concert stage. The only
\nquestion is: was it absolutely necessary? In this case, it feels
\nlike it’s included to prove the band could indeed do it – and I
\nknow I wasn’t questioning their musical ability in concert.<\/p>\n
\nThe Thieving Magpie<\/i> is presently out of print in America
\n(though there is an import version available on CDNOW), and it
\nwasn’t included in the recent re-masters of Marillion’s discs. Why
\nthis is, I don’t know – but
\nThe Thieving Magpie<\/i> is the best choice of all the live work
\nfeaturing Fish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5884],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36992","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-marillion","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36992","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=36992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36992"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36992"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}