F E A R (F*** EVERYONE AND RUN)

I remember the day this arrived in the post from Racket Records. It had been a long work-day, and after everything settled down around 11PM, and after opening the CD and transferring it onto my iPod, I ran myself a hot bath and lay in the water with my headphones on taking in these new sounds. Eldorado starts with Rothery gently picking away on an acoustic guitar, and I thought that it had a definite "Pink Floyd" vibe. For the next hour the music just washed over me. On that first listen. I found It difficult to take in, and could only really remember fragments of the songs. It was almost as if I had slipped into a dream state where I was half awake and half asleep. I knew I liked what I had heard, but I couldn't explain how or why. Now we are six years on from that evening, and every play of FEAR brings me part-way back to those initial moments. I can't say that this record is the finest Marillion creation, but it certainly has a special uniqueness that is still hard to fully define.