THIS STRANGE ENGINE

After two works of deep and dark reflections such as "Brave" and "Afraid of Sunlight", Marillion breathes less choppy and more relaxed with "This Strange Engine", their ninth album.

An irregular proposal, which combines moments of great harmonic freshness as with the opening "A Man of a Thousand Faces" or the expressive "80 Days" showing a decidedly eloquent Steve Hogarth, with others of solemn melancholy as with the peaceful "Memory Of Water", and contrasted with the insipidity of "An Accidental Man" and the inexplicably failed "Hope For The Future" of Caribbean rhythms, a misstep as was "Cannibal Surf Babe" on "Afraid of Sunlight".

But the album's lack of cohesion did not prevent the Englishmen from delivering a couple of sublime pieces: the emotional and breezy "Estonia", referring to the tragedy of the ferry of the same name in the icy Baltic Sea in September 1994 and featuring the interesting string nuance of Tim Perkins' balalaika (a kind of lute of Russian origin) and, above all, Hogarth's extensive and heartfelt tribute to his father in the confessional "This Strange Engine", with Mark Kelly in the leading role and very uninhibited on keyboards (with a circumstantial Wakemanian air), Steve Rothery's sustained guitar solos, Phil Todd's dramatic saxophone and an instrumental development with tension surges and silent pauses in the progressive style that end with an unbridled vocal discharge by Hogarth. Surely the best moment of the album and a more than acceptable closure. The change from the giant multinational record label EMI and its extensive networks to one with more frugal resources such as Castle Communications, added to a proposal whose consistency falters in some passages, prevented "This Strange Engine" from having a great repercussion and recognition at the time.

3 stars