In 2020 Prog requested for readers’ views on the perfect Marillion songs from the neo-proggers’ in depth profession. Included in that 12 months’s 148-page Marillion: Prog Particular, 1000’s of individuals forged their votes. The highest 20 tracks have been break up throughout 10 albums, with 5 every from their Fish and Steve Hogarth eras.
4 of these songs got here from Marbles; three every from Fugazi and Seasons Finish; and two every from Script For A Jester’s Tear, Misplaced Childhood and Clutching At Straws. There was even a excessive inserting for a music that Marillion themselves would in all probability reasonably overlook.
20. Assassing (Fugazi, 1984)
Fish’s wordy wordplay is perhaps too intelligent for its personal good (apparently it was impressed by the firing of unique drummer Mick Pointer), however there’s no arguing with the viciousness of Fugazi’s opening observe. ‘What do you name assassins who accuse assassins anyway?’ Who is aware of?
19. Incubus (Fugazi 1984)
Considered one of Fish’s favorite tracks, Incubus is a voyeuristic story of misplaced, bed room Polaroid images. At instances borderline seedy, the depth of the narrative is equalled by the impressed musical backdrop. Whether or not the explosive introduction, the just about funereal center part or euphoric conclusion, it’s a spotlight from an often-overlooked album.
18. The Area (Seasons Finish, 1989)
Partly recycled from an unreleased music by Steve Hogarth’s outdated band How We Reside titled Wrapped In The Flag and impressed by a tram accident the singer witnessed in Amsterdam, The Area finds Hogarth musing on the injury he’d brought about and had been brought about all through his life. The ‘all people in the entire of the world’ coda ends each the music and their first album collectively on an acceptable billowing be aware.
17. Lavender (Misplaced Childhood, 1985)
The outdated folks music Lavender’s Blue will get reimagined as a grown-up love music, changing the heartbreak and craving of Kayleigh with innocence and hope. A mild melody provides strategy to a refrain that crashes in like a tidal wave, proving that Marillion might go for the center in addition to the top.
16. Seasons Finish (Seasons Finish, 1989)
Marillion had by no means sounded so Floydian than on the title observe to Steve Hogarth’s debut album with them, although the lyrics have been one thing else: eight minutes of apocalyptic magnificence that envision an Earth ruined by local weather change – lengthy earlier than that turned a hot-button subject. Unhappy to say it’s extra related as we speak than ever.
15. Incredible Place (Marbles 2004)
Surprisingly, members of the band have been unconvinced that this tender music deserved a spot on Marbles till they have been persuaded in any other case by their producer. Probably the most blatant music about escapism on the album, it’s spiritually uplifting each musically and lyrically, sending out the message that it doesn’t matter what the environment, escape is at all times enticingly possible.
14. Heat Moist Circles (Clutching At Straws, 1987)
Close to cinematic vignettes of life, love and loss in small-town Britain, all bathed within the romantic optics and lifted to the sky by Steve Rothery, whose guitar appears to circle ever larger. Mark Kelly, for one, complained that the title ruined the probabilities of main chart success, but it surely stays a spotlight of the Fish years.
13. Afraid Of Daylight (Afraid Of Daylight, 1995)
The title observe of Marillion’s final major-label outing finds Hogarth turning his incisive gaze on the worth of fame. Along with a standout efficiency from the vocalist, because the observe builds to a crescendo Rothery lets unfastened with a guitar solo that matches the frontman’s impassioned supply.
12. Forgotten Sons (Script For A Jester’s Tear, 1983)
Anybody doubting Marillion’s political edge want solely take heed to the observe that closes Script For A Jester’s Tear. Switching between armoured car-like energy and ghostly atmosphere, this decried the mindless violence and hopeless loss that outlined The Troubles in Northern Eire.
11. Fugazi (Fugazi, 1984)
Named after slang utilized by US troops in Vietnam for “all fucked up,” their second album’s title observe was an awesome leap ahead from their debut. Shifting tempo and path all through, it captures Fish in full poet-warrior mode, laying naked the tensions of recent life in intricate type.
10. Ocean Cloud (Marbles, 2004)
Marillion have constantly been capable of produce cinematic, enthralling music – one thing that was exemplified on Ocean Cloud. One other luxurious music from the potent Marbles album, it was impressed by the feats of endurance achieved by yachtsman Tony Bullimore and Atlantic rower Don Allen.
It prolonged the album’s lyrical undercurrent of escapism and a need to show society unsuitable. It additionally references Hogarth’s real-life run in with a video games trainer who publicly dismissed him as a “cream puff,” and his need the show the accuser to have been in error.
Enhanced by means of information studies and a few of Allen’s diary entries, the music is extremely shifting – particularly given the rower died months after his achievement because of the accidents he’d sustained.
Musically, the observe is just immense. Lilting keyboards accompany calmer components of the story, with a chaotic, clattering backdrop offering a dramatic focus for the extra perilous moments of their nautical journeys.
9. Sugar Mice (Clutching At Straws, 1987)
Impressed by the ‘lodge in Milwaukee within the rain’ talked about within the lyrics, proper down the cellphone name Fish made to his then-wife, the mild Sugar Mice drills down into precisely the identical form of existential loneliness and sense of impermanence which was fantastically captured within the film Misplaced In Translation round a decade and a half later.
8. Easter (Seasons Finish, 1989)
When Hogarth turned Marillion’s vocalist in 1988, opinion among the many fanbase appeared equally divided between those that immediately warmed to him and people who merely couldn’t settle for that Fish was not on the helm. The important thing to profitable over the doubters got here with songs like Easter, an emotionally overpowering take a look at civil warfare that boasts a melody so incisive and stirring that many Fish-ites discovered it unimaginable to withstand.
7. Grendel (Market Sq. Heroes EP, 1982)
You possibly can hear the groans of the band themselves that this music positioned so excessive. The grandstanding 17-minute observe that squatted like a swamp beast on the B-side of 1982’s Market Sq. Heroes EP is a callow try to jot down an immediate epic that’s daring, formidable and – when you’re a member of the band – plain embarrassing.
Fish borrowed closely from John Gardner’s novel Grendel, although not as closely because the music itself borrowed from Genesis’ Supper’s Prepared – one fragment is a ringer for the latter’s Apocalypse In 9/8 part. However for all that, its puppyish enthusiasm and bulletproof chutzpah is unimaginable to not love.
6. The Nice Escape (Courageous, 1994)
Courageous didn’t make for simple listening. Recanting the lifetime of a would-be suicide sufferer discovered wandering on the Severn Bridge, the album investigated a dismal world of abuse and drug dependancy. The accompanying movie of the identical identify solely amplified the psychological photographs into one thing starkly tangible.
The Nice Escape delivers a story of the lady’s inside turmoil as she heads towards the bridge and an unsure future. Regardless of such bleakness, the music is archetypal Marillion, replete with chiming keyboards, perfectly-weighted bass and drums, and one other certainly one of Rothery’s career-defining guitar solos.
Vocally, Hogarth manages to seize the psychological torment of the primary character, delivering her strains with an empathy and vitality that few singers can obtain. Other than being an album spotlight, dwell performances are embellished with an unnerving edginess, earlier than the album’s ultimate observe Made Once more supplies some much-needed optimism.
5. The Invisible Man (Marbles, 2004)
Unquestionably one of many band’s most interesting tracks, The Invisible Man is one other excessive level on certainly one of their most alluring albums of the final 25 years. Extending to nearly quarter-hour, Marillion handle to realize a seamless consistency between the quite a few key and melody modifications, with out it sounding like a swiftly stapled collectively blueprint.
Identifiable as Marillion, however with contemporary thrives – the opening phase even triggers reminiscences of Portishead – the music has a pure poignancy which is a becoming match for Hogarth’s heartfelt vocals.
Referencing the singer’s sensation that, as a middle-aged man, he was changing into dislocated from fashionable tradition and that the world had not modified for the higher, it’s a smart remark on that ongoing, generational disconnect. Carried out dwell, the notion is given a putting visible assist with Hogarth hobbling on stage supported by a strolling cane, with the band giving the music an urgency and aptitude that has made this a beloved live performance favorite.
4. Script For A Jester’s Tear (Script For A Jester’s Tear, 1983)
The title observe of the band’s debut album launched the now-familiar determine of the Jester, who would – in some kind or one other – seem visually or lyrically on all their Fish-era releases. Ascending via moments of mellow brooding, via to the exuberant finale, it’s a lavish observe with one other impressed Rothery solo. The lyrics trace at passionate, lonely bedsit poetry, and would discover accord with a lot of prog rock’s extra cerebrally-minded listeners.
3. Kayleigh (Misplaced Childhood, 1985)
The music that modified every thing for the band, Kayleigh was written about Fish’s ex-girlfriend and shortly turned the sound of the summer time in 1985. The right pop music, with heartfelt lyrics, catchy refrain and idiosyncratic guitar work, it peaked at quantity 2 within the singles chart and led to an look on night chat present Wogan and on High Of The Pops – unthinkable even two years earlier than.
It could be the millstone across the band’s neck – to at the present time, the gold disc award hangs on the bathroom wall of their studio – but it surely made them family names.
2. This Unusual Engine (This Unusual Engine, 1997)
Recorded throughout the band’s indie label part, the album was a barely awkward stylistic combine that, though participating, lacked path and sounded reasonably incomplete. Nonetheless, the 15-minute title observe stays certainly one of their most fascinating works. Marillion at all times ship when there’s a definite lyrical idea to wrap their musical magnificence round – and, crucially, the place there’s the area and time to excellent it.
Right here, Hogarth endearingly recounts an autobiographical story of his childhood, wistfully recalling nautical tales informed to him by his sailor father, heavy with acknowledgement of the familial sacrifices such a nomadic existence entailed.
The band created an creative and empathetic accompaniment for every lyrical phase. Opening softly, the interaction between guitar and keyboards subtly develop the melodies earlier than hitting an exquisite crescendo. Hogarth’s traumatic childhood assault by a swarm of bees even leads into an surprising and lovingly-executed saxophone part.
The solos carried out by Rothery and Kelly are a few of their most recognisable; and, for a lot of, haven’t been surpassed. It’s additionally turn out to be a much-adored dwell centrepiece, with Hogarth enjoying his cricket bat transformed keyboard, including leisure to the drama. It’s uncommon for a 15-minute observe to be so enthralling.
1. Neverland (Marbles, 2004)
Opening with mournful keyboard elements, Neverland progressively develops right into a traditional Marillion observe. It’s expansive, soulful and endearing, with no unbecoming musical diversions of which the band had sometimes been responsible throughout the late 90s and early 2000s.
The 12 minutes are a showcase for the core Marillion traits. It’s the correctly constructed sound of a band in excellent stability, warmly encompassing their legacy, and including twenty first century up to date polish. Certainly, the observe is without doubt one of the peaks on an album that re-embraced the grandeur of their previous.
However the beautiful milieu solely symbolize a part of the music’s enchantment. Hogarth’s emotional voice and massively private lyrics adorn the tenderness of the music. Divided into two distinct segments, the primary offers with the uplifting energy of affection, whereas he struggles to just accept and deal with his private flaws. As usually is the case on this highly effective album, the lyrics then delve into the need to flee.
Impressed by JM Barrie’s Peter Pan – though properly disguised – the references to Wendy, the ticick crocodile and Captain Hook add a surreal component. It’s an impeccable mix of what’s at all times made Marillion nice: unabashed progressive rock, coupled with cerebral lyrics that encourage thought and emotional dedication.
