B'SIDES THEMSELVES

Despite the fact that Grendel is a weak retread of Supper's Ready (structurally, musically, vocally) I still like it. I mean, Genesis only wrote one 20 minute epic, so why not have Marillion write one more as a tribute to them? I'm sure it was not intended as a tribute to Suppers Ready, but man does it sound like one. The lyrics though, are quite good, especially if you've read the book, Grendel (can't recall the name of the author, but is a modern take on the Beuwolf epic poem written from the perspective of the villain Grendel). And to be honest, the music isn't a compete rip off of Genesis, any more than their debut album is. But there is one part that I lovingly refer to as "Apocalypse in 4/4", because of it's somewhat amateurish attempt to recreate the same effect as the 9/8 section in Genesis' favorite epic.

As to the rest of this CD, well, they are singles and B-sides written in an attempt to get radio play and broaden the fan base. So don't expect much in the way of prog goodness. 3 Boats I quite like, with it's creepy verse and interesting structure, but the rest don't do a lot for me and can even get annoying. Seeing the 12 minute running time of Margaret might give hope to a progger who has just forced himself to sit through the preceding songs, but sadly it is a mostly repetitive, if quite energetic, live take on this song. Not terribly interesting on repeated plays.

I can say this perfectly fits the description of 2 stars for this site. If you want to hear Grendel though, this is a reasonably priced way to do it.