Amazon.co.uk Review
As curtain-raising lyrics go, Steve Hogarth's initiatory assertion on
Marbles that "The World's gone mad" really isn't very far from the truth. After all, this same shuddering sentiment must have been echoed by perturbed pop watchers up and down the land as Marillion's inexorably adult single "You're Gone" (included here in two versions) gatecrashed the teen-flavoured UK Top 10. The wind did howl and there were dark murmurings that the prog rock bogeyman had finally come for our children. Relax. Thirteen albums in and Marillion don't have designs on our youth.
Behind "Marbles" facade of generous dance beats and FX jiggery pokery lays the stubborn prog beast of old, albeit one that acknowledges the recent past more readily than when Fish was at the helm all those years ago. Thus, you could be forgiven for mistaking "Fantastic Place" to be the work of "Colour of Spring" era Talk Talk (Hogarth does a rather good Mark Hollis) while "Don't Hurt Yourself" borrows from the Manic Street Preachers' "If You Tolerate This" and adds the spiritual protest and folk strum of the Levellers (Hogarth can do a good Mark Chadwick as well). And to avoid any sense of disorientation, there's a reasonable, but never blatant, nod in the direction of Genesis. Old rambling tendencies remain--the pretty "Angelina" has a rather dreary and entirely superfluous two-minute intro--and try as they may Marillion will never be as vital or relevant as Radiohead. That said, committed fans (and there are many) will have their enduring faith in Marillion handsomely repaid by Marbles. --Kevin Maidment
Album Description
Refusing to compromise their music by bowing to marketing pressures, focus groups or record labels seeking a chart-busting single, Marillion--described by
Classic Rock magazine as a "wonderful, idiosyncratic and dramatic rock band"--have pressed on to create their own unmistakable and unique music whilst amassing a huge underground following around the world. Their new CD,
Marbles, is a creative milestone of atmospheric and stirring songs. It's intense, deep-seated and musically multilateral--you'll either get it or you won't.
