MAN MADE MACHINE

Just like I said in my review of their previous album "Superhero", CARPTREE are the closest version of MARILLION without Steve Rothery on guitar, although "Man-made machine" has much more presence of guitar than "Superhero". Besides FISH-like vocals, what is interesting in this album is the clear resemblance to MARILLION's "Misplaced childhood", to the extent that both albums end almost identically. I also sensed some influence of FISH's solo album "Sunsets on empire", especially in the first half of the album. Also, very interesting is the fact that most songs on the album follow a standard structure (in terms of verses and choruses) without losing the progressive edge through the entire work. Nevertheless, although "Man-made machine" contains a lot of well-developed tunes, it doesn't have a song like "Kayleigh" or "Lavender", or even "Goldfish and clowns" and "Brother 52". What it does have, however, is very good lyrics that make it as close as you can get to a concept album (and I think it is). In general, "Man-made machine" is a wonderful album, and is for sure another must-have for Fish-era MARILLION fans (maybe even more than "Superhero"). I am sure that if it was released in 1984 (before "Misplaced childhood") I would have given this album a fat five stars. But I will keep it to four and half stars because of the all-too-obvious inspiration.