MARBLES

Some time ago, i thought i could never expect a masterpiece from this band for the future. I know some of their previous albums were not bad at all and one way or another, each one of them has got good and bad points. But i thought they never could create a masterpiece as Brave was, for example (in fact, the last masterpiece of the band). When i heard Marbles i simlply could not believe it. In some way they came back to the dark and sad atmospheres of Brave, but if you catch only this idea, i think it would a very simple way to describe the album... Too simple. Coz here you can find sounds of all times of Marillion, and the album is sometimes glorious, some times magnificent, some times epic, some times dark, some times nostalgic, some times claustrophobic... Particulary, i love the long songs of the album: "Ocean Cloud" is probably the best of them, along their 17 minutes... "Neverland" (12 minutes) is another fantastic long piece... and "The Invisible Man" too, even when is darker than the other two. Is good to rediscover the emotional solos of Steve Rothery... i missed a lot all these years those incredible solos in songs like "Incubus" or "Forgotten Sons"... Anyway, you not should to wait to hear "Misplaced Childhood" again... As i wrote before, this album has got little sparks from all times and past albums of the band... and once it has got an authentic sound, a personal style, even when some of the short songs remind U2 ("You´re gone") and some others have got a beatle touch ("The Damage"). One more thing, try to buy the double edition, not the single, coz you will miss a lot of great songs if you do it (even some of the best of the album). One of the great albums of last 10 years.