Marillion This Strange Engine released

This Strange Engine Marillion

Released: April 21, 1997 Peak: -- US, 27 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- Genre: neo-progressive rock

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release) Click for codes to singles charts. Man of a Thousand Faces [7:31] (5/16/97, --) One Fine Day [5:31] 80 Days [5:00] (9/29/97, --) Estonia [7:56] Memory of Water [3:01] An Accidental Man [6:10] Hope for the Future [5:10] This Strange Engine [15:41*] * Includes about 10 minutes of silence and then a laugh. Lyrics by Steve Hogarth and John Helmer; music by Marillion (Hogarth/ Kelly/ Mosley/ Rothery/ Trewavas). Total Running Time: 56:06 The Players: Steve Hogarth (vocals, percussion) Steve Rothery (guitar) Pete Trewavas (bass) Mark Kelly (keyboards) Ian Mosley (drums)

Rating: 3.210 out of 5.00 (average of 21 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “If any self-respecting Marillion fans could have looked into a crystal ball back in the mid-'80s (at the the band's pinnacle) to see where the band's path was headed, most would likely have been shocked and amazed to see how it all turned out. If the Fish-led incarnation steered the band down an often dramatic path of intricate, ambitious material, Marillion's new boy, Steve Hogarth, slowly beat it out of them – but not necessarily in a bad way.” JF “Marillion…toes the line between various genres, from top 40 to progressive rock…While this is a disadvantage from a marketing perspective, it does help if you're looking for music that is out of the ordinary. After 15 years, the band is still going strong, while keeping their sound fresh and innovative.” RS “This Strange Engine features the Mach II Marillion lineup in all its commercial glory.” JF On “their most accessible, well-rounded and plainly enjoyable work since 1991's Holidays in Eden,” LS the band “balances the band's strengths with their propensity to seek new directions.” JT It “combines everything that one associates with Marillion (complex arrangements and deep lyrics), with a few twists and turns here and there (primarily in the form of acoustic guitars). Vocalist Steve Hogarth fits in very well with the subtle guitar work of Steve Rothery and the ambient keyboard of Mark Kelly” RS as well as “Ian Mosley's tight drum sounds.” JF “Hogarth helms the new, nimbler Marillion with an iron hand, and if occasionally they're still vulnerable to the charge of overindulgence, the deft pop melodies and substantial musicianship demonstrate that everyone recognises where the edge is these days.” RB “Man of a Thousand Faces has a convincing momentum.” RB “The accoustic, intimate atmosphere…reminds [one] a little of Crowded House, when they're playing live.” EL That song and “the uber-commercial 80 Days” JF “are tailor made for radio, with their crisp verses and thundering choruses engaging the listener.” JT “'80 Days' and 'Man of a Thousand Faces' show traces of the backbone that has been noticably lacking these last few years.” LS The latter, with its “easy' sound [and] friendly flow,” EL “features perhaps one of the finest Hogarth-led choruses in recent history” JF and is “one of the most insightful homages to the wear and tear of touring.” JT Two more slices of “primo power pop” RB come in the form of “the quasi-Journey strains of One Fine Day” JF and Accidental Man. The former sports a “wonderful bluesy guitar sound that is…a bit like Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight.’” EL Estonia is the most powerful song on the album. Its theme makes it a prime candidate to play at a memorial service, which recognizes the seriousness and sadness of the song while also acknowledging that this song has an overwhelming capacity for touching the universal soul. From the understated Memory of Water come the lines ‘I wonder if my rope's still hanging from the tree/By the standing pool where you where you drank me/And filled me full of thirsty love/And the memory of water.’” JT “Melancholy, sadness, in a quite simple way (soundwise)...beautiful. This one can't do much wrong because of the vioins.” EL “Hope for the Future jangles through its mad key changes in pleasing Crowded House fashion.” RB This has a “‘come and sit around the fire’-sound…very nice and cosy.” EL As “the album's sole proggy track,” JF the title song “builds into the kind of swirling prog-rock that hasn't been heard in these parts for years.” LS “Replete with Pink Floyd-style sax solos,” JF it “is a slice of the songwriter's childhood, a magical juxtaposition of wonder and lower middle class struggle. It is clearly a progressive piece, a throwback to Marillion's days with Fish, but it also reminds us how they are still capable of outdoing themselves, and entertaining whoever is lucky enough to be listening.” JT “The guitar work in the title track and ‘Man of a Thousand Faces’ alone make this release worth getting.” RS Notes: Second versions of "Estonia" and "80 Days" appear on some CDs.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Marillion RB Rob Beattie, Music Boulevard. Review from Q magazine. JT Joe del Tufo, Music Boulevard. Review from Good Times magazine. EL Elke, Music Boulevard. JF John Franck, All Music Guide RS Ram Samudrala, Music Boulevard. LS Liam Sheils, Music Boulevard. Review from Kerrang! magazine. Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/14/2008; last updated 3/6/2022.

Marillion Holidays in Eden released

Holidays in Eden Marillion

Released: June 24, 1991 Peak: -- US, 7 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- Genre: neo-progressive rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Splintering Heart [6:51] Cover My Eyes (Pain and Heaven) [3:56] (5/28/91, 34 UK) The Party [5:36] No One Can [4:39] (7/22/91, 26 UK) Holidays in Eden(Marillion, Helmer) [5:58] Dry Land (Hogarth/ Woore) [4:42] (9/23/91, 34 UK) Waiting to Happen [4:55] This Town [3:18] The Rakes Progress [1:54] 100 Nights [6:42] Lyrics by Steve Hogarth; music by Marillion (Hogarth/ Kelly/ Mosley/ Rothery/ Trewavas) unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 48:17 The Players: Steve Hogarth (vocals, percussion) Steve Rothery (guitar) Pete Trewavas (bass) Mark Kelly (keyboards) Ian Mosley (drums)

Rating: 3.593 out of 5.00 (average of 22 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: This was Steve Hogarth’s second album with Marillion after Fish left in 1988. In an effort to boost sales, the band “paired themselves with pop producer Christopher Neil for 1991’s Holidays in Eden. It wasn’t exactly a move that paid either commercial or artistic dividends, as the results are so diluted and bland that one can only hope this was a desperate attempt to appease their label.” AMG The lead single, Cover My Eyes (Pain and Heaven), was a rewrite of the song “Simon’s Car” which Hogarth originally recorded with his band How We Live. With its “ringing guitars…it sounds as though they want to reinvent themselves as U2.” AMG Similarly, Dry Land was also a reworking of a song originally released on How We Live’s only album in 1987. Marillion released it as the third single to support Holidays in Eden. The album’s highest-charting single, No One Can, was a ballad. All three singles reached the top 40 in the UK. While Hogarth called it “Marillion’s ‘pop’est album ever,” WK he also said “obviously Splintering Heart or This Town is not exactly pop music. There were things within that album that were not overtly commercial.” WK Hogarth said the band “reacted to that and went 360 degrees” on the next album. WK Notes: When released in the U.S., the tracks were in a different order and B-sides “A Collection” and “How Can It Hurt” were added. Those 2 cuts were also on the 2-disc reissue, along with non-album cuts “Sympathy” (2 versions) “I Will Walk on Water,” (both of which were on the 1992 compilation Six of One, Half of Dozen of the Other), “You Don't Need Anyone,” “Eric,” and “The Epic (Fairground).” Also included are alternate versions of “Cover My Eyes (Pain and Heaven),” “Splintering Heart,” “No One Can,” “The Party,” “This Town,” and “Waiting to Happen.”

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Marillion AMG All Music Guide review by Tom Demalon WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/14/2008; last updated 3/6/2022.

 

Marillion Seasons End released

Seasons End Marillion

Released: September 25, 1989 Peak: -- US, 7 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 0.1 UK Genre: neo-progressive rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. The King of Sunset Town (Marillion, John Helmer) [8:01] Easter [5:57] (3/19/90, 34 UK) The Uninvited Guest (Marillion, Helmer) [3:50] (11/27/89, 53 UK) Seasons End (Marillion, Helmer) [8:08] Holloway Girl [4:27] Berlin (Marillion, Helmer) [7:43] After Me [3:19] Hooks in You (Marillion, Helmer) [2:54] (8/29/89, 49 AR, 30 UK) The Space… (Marillion, Woore, Dugmore, Harper) [6:14] Music and lyrics by Marillion (Hogarth, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley) unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 50:55 The Players: Steve Hogarth (vocals, percussion) Steve Rothery (guitar) Pete Trewavas (bass) Mark Kelly (keyboards) Ian Mosley (drums)

Rating: 4.032 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: After four albums with Marillion, their lead singer Fish departed for a solo career. His “distinct voice and poetic prose made him the defining member of the band. One can only imagine how record executives held their collective breath as Steve Hogarth was brought in to take the reins. His first outing with the band, 1989’s Seasons End, removed all doubts about the band's future. Hogarth’s unique, expressive voice fit Marillion perfectly.” AMG His “flexible range and beautiful phrasing shine on the entire album.” AMG Whether “on the full-throttle rock assault of The Uninvited Guest or the emotional After You, Hogarth's singularity is unmistakable.” AMG Kerrang!’s Mick Wall called Hogarth’s voice “smooth as glass and emotive as hell…Steve Hogarth is no Fish clone…He doesn’t need to be. He’s got a voice of his own…you can almost forget the band ever had another singer.” WK The band wrote most of the material before Hogarth joined. Some of the initial attempts with Fish on vocals appear on the 1999 reissue of Clutching at Straws. They also commissioned John Helmer to write lyrics to many of the songs. Still, Hogarth did write lyrics for a couple of the songs. One was the “beautiful” AMG and “heartfelt Easter with its imaginative electric-acoustic arrangement, is another showcase for Hogarth’s talents.” AMG The song is his “plea for peace in Ireland.” AMG Hogarth also wrote The Space. He explained that the song grew out of an incident in which he saw a car parked too close to a tram and the tram tore the side of it off when it came down the road. Years later, Hogarth thought, “I was a bit like that tram when I probably ripped the side of a few things I hadn’t even felt and I hadn’t slowed down either and I probably hadn’t noticed. So the words came from that realization.” WK Several of the songs make political and social statements. The title cut addresses climate change while Berlin “describes the situation in the divided city of Berlin.” WK Helmer originally wrote The King of Sunset Town about poverty, but Hogarth modified it to address “the brutal oppression of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.” WK The line “And everyone assembled here / Remembers how it used to be / Before the 27th came” refers to the 27th Army who was involved in the massacre. WK “Marillion’s ability to write music whose ideals live and breathe in the listener continues…on the inspiring Holloway Girl, which dissects the injustice of incarcerating mentally ill female inmates (at England’s Holloway Prison) instead of placing them in appropriate psychiatric facilities.” AMG It specifically addressed “the imprisonment of Judith Ward in Holloway Prison for IRA bombings.” WK Notes: A 1999 remaster includes a second disc with outtakes of "The Uninvited Guest," (also the 12" single version), "The King of Sunset Town," "Holloway Girl," "Seasons End," and "Berlin" as well as B-sides "The Bell in the Sea" (2 versions) and "The Release."

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Marillion AMG All Music Guide review by Jeri Montesano WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/14/2008; last updated 3/6/2022.