FUGAZI

In the early 80s a friend of mine came back from UK with a copy of the EP "Market Square Heroes". I fell in love with Grendel but they were not yet distributed in Italy so the first album that I found was Fugazi.

Grendel was not there, but three things of it had an immediate impact on me:

first, my version of the vinyl doesn't have any information about the band. Marillion and Fugazi are the only thing. I actually didn't know anything about them and this sort of "mystery" contributed to give it appeal.

second, the sleeve design was saying "Hey, I'm a progressive album".

third, the high quality of the recording. "She Chameleon" is extremely clean, even on vinyl.

The connection with Genesis was evident, specially because Fish was singing like Peter Gabriel, but listening better there are also influences coming from Pink Floyd (mainly The Wall).

There is not a concept, this is just a collection of songs and some of them like Incubis, Fugazi and Assassing are very good. Others, like Punch and Judy are jus average for me. Even "She Chameleon" has an excellent production but I don't think it's an highlight.

It's a good album but not a masterpiece and it also appears to be quite dated today as it sounds very 80s. I still prefer it to their debut "Script" that I didn't find too good. This is a good starting point for who wants to approach Marillion for the first time, even if my favourite of this period is the live Real to Reel.

Even if I love it for being my first Marillion's album I can't rate it more than 3 stars. However compared to most of the stuff released in the early 80s it's comparable to a masterpiece. This is I think the reason why Marillion are so beloved. In 1984 they were the only decent new band available.