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Nicely written review! Marillion are one of those bands that require a little more effort to find out what they are doing.

Pundits have frequently predicted their demise, but they are still here, strong as ever and putting out meaningful music!

Frans

Looking forward to hearing it. Although I do think that Brave and Afraid of Sunlight are deserving of similar kudos, in terms of acknowledging them finding their sound. I think Brave may be one of the single greatest concept albums ever recorded.

This alobum does not work at all. Marbles is a master piece and this is a mish mash of outtakes from anarak no good bia and Marbles. After a three year wait the lads ( I love this band have been a fan since 1984)have sold the fans short on a mediorce effort. Most Toys is truly appalling and bar The Wound and Thank you whoever you are this album is far from average even

Peter, while Brave and AOS did find them in great form, they never particularly settled on a sound - those two albums are wildly different in every way possible, as are pretty much every album they did in the 90s. It wasn't until late in the decade that they seemed to start settling on a sound and really start working it. And, yes, they are definitely high-water marks, I didn't mean to besmirch them in my review - but they wouldn't necessarily be where I'd send the uninitiated, either. Before Marbles came along, absolutely I would have pointed them at AOS, but now I'd say these two albums would make a good start because, and I know fans will hate to hear this, but they're lighter introductions to the band's sound that has enough pop-friendliness to not turn outsiders off. But those would be next.

I've been looking forward to this, following the podcasts as things evolved. However, the album is disappointing - only the title track and 'No Such Thing' do anything for me. The guitar parts seem to have been 'phoned in', with no trademark searing solos; the keyboards are just background texture. The bass is anonymous. The drumming's pretty good though. Not cohesive, too bland. I really want to love this CD more, given the band's discography, but I can't.

As someone who basically completely lost track of Marillion after Fish left (I lost interest at about the same time), I was actually very pleasantly surprised by this album.

Now, I haven't heard Marbles (though I plan on checking it out based on what I heard on this album). So I guess I dont really have an accurate yardstick to measure their more recent efforts by. At least, not yet.

But like I said, I quite liked what I heard here. The main thing that struck me is that they really sound like Marillion here. As in, this is their own unique sound, rather than one deriative of other bands like Genesis. Which, even though I quite liked Marillion at the time, is precisely what they were in the eighties with Fish.

I definitely liked what I heard here though and will most likely write something about it myself. Good review too Mr. Johnson. I think Marbles may just be my next CD purchase.

-Glen

Thanks, Glen! This album's getting some very mixed reviews and I think a lot of it's due to the album's somewhat murky sound rather than the songs, but a lot of people aren't letting themselves listen through that. I probably should have mentioned it, but at the time it seemed like a big issue and I thought maybe it would be better to let it lie and just speak about the music. I hope more listeners just judge it on the music rather than the unfortunately poor mix/mastering that happened (and the question of why did they do this?!)

Do yourself a favor and get the two-disc version of Marbles from the band's site. The pared-down one-disc Marbles just does not do the music justice, and you miss out on one of their best-ever pieces, the 17-minute "Ocean Cloud." Really: do not miss out!

So Tom ---

Not to sound like a complete dummy here, but how do I go about getting the 2CD version of Marbles?

I went to Marillion's website and everything there is calculated in english pounds. Is there anywhere this can be ordered in the US at a reasonable price in US dollars (already tried Amazon and ebay)?

By the way, I did write a review of the new one taken more from the context of the old Fish era guy rediscovering the band. Just for the record, I think the sound on the new one is just fine. In fact, the bass tones swirling around that simple repetitive chord sequence on the latter part of "The Wound" sound just amazing to my ears (IMHO of course)

Thanx again.

-Glen

Sorry about that, Glen. Their site is a little confusing with all the splitting-up of their catalog that they do. It took me a few minutes to find it and I'm familiar with it. Here's what you're looking for: marbles. In the middle of the page is an orange box with three ordering options. You want either of the two 2-disc versions. The "deluxe campaign edition" is indeed extremely deluxe (that's what I have because I was part of the campaign and my name is in the book) with a beautiful 6" or 7" x 1" square box with book inside with a huge 128 page book of photos, lyrics, etc, plus the CDs, of course (you can see it here). It's beautiful - well worth the money, but understandably more than you're willing to spend at this point unless you just want something really special to add to your collection. The other 2CD standard jewel case edition is probably more than suitable. I just ran through their shop and it comes to $24.80 with shipping. (The deluxe is $55, so you'd really have to be sure you want/need that.) They're really pretty quick with the shipping, too. I've never had anything but good service from them.

Nice one Tom!
'Forwarded it to www.marillion.com forum (check it out)
Cheers
F

Great album and a relief after the pompous Marbles. Less is more in my opinion.

Tom,

I have a question/favor I need to ask you related to Marillion. Could you please e-mail privately through the Yahoo group?

Many many thanks!

-Glen