TUMBLING DOWN THE YEARS

OK, hands up......I'm not the world's biggest Marillion fan. I was into them in the Marquee days before they'd released anything other than a cassette, I adored (and still do) Script, saw them in Hammersmith on the Fugazi tour, and then.......well, just kinda lost touch. Heard Marbles last year and loved it. Anyways 'Tumbling Down The Years' has foundit's way to my CD player and a damn fine listen it is too. The album was recorded at one of the legendary Marillion conventions and consists of the band playing (in reverse) a track from each year of their career, from 2008 to 1990 with Slante Mhath and Garden Party thrown in for good measure. So, as someone listening to a lot of these tracks for the first time I'm very impressed. It's fascinating to hear the band go from their recent incarnation as a band all about feeling and ambience (a la Talk Talk, Radiohead etc) to a more song based band on some of their earlier tracks where their 'progressive' roots shine through clearest. It's hard to pick out individual highlights but the moody stuff is well represented by Cathedral Wall on the first CD and the highlight of the poppier stuff is a tremendous No One Can on the second CD. So, all in all a great introduction to the band for a relative newcomer like myself. I'm marking it down slightly as the first CD is not really 'progressive' in ANY sense of the word......just rather beautiful.