MARBLES LIVE

Personnaly I have always prefered Fish era Marillion to Hogarth era but that wasnt going to stop me getting this album when it came out. And at half the price that the studio album is (still!) being sold at who could blame me.This album comprises the performance of the album Marbles that you can find on the Marbles On The Road DVD, only without the extra tracks of the DVD but Estonia added to the end. Its not quite the same track listing as the studio album as Drilling Holes has been replaced with The Damage, and I have to admit I still havnt heard the studio album so I dont know wether thats a good thing or not.

Steven Hogarth has taken a lot of flack in the past for turning Marillion much closer towards a pop sound than they ever did with Fish. However, the album opener, The Invisable Man, is a stuning full on prog track that ranks up there as one of Marillions all time best songs. Sadly all the songs dont keep to this level brilliance, but also non of them are bad. A lot of the songs enhabit the 4-6 minute mark, witch isnt a bad thing as the songs tend to move from one emotionall ride to another, interspersed with Marbles parts I to IV. The album closes with two of the longest tracks on here. Neverland is the studio album closser and is a really powerfull, epic feeling song. This would have made for a very memorable finishing for the album except that Estonia was still to play. Though Estonia isnt actually a ba song it just gives the album a bit of an anti-climactic final after Neverland.

One problem I have with this is that a lot of the songs are mid paced and if it wasnt for the short Marbles tracks, you probably wouldnt notice huge changes between songs from Your Gone up to The Damage. This may sound like a bad thing but it does give the performance a nice mellow feeling. this changes at The Damage witch is a very up-tempo raucus song that really helps to lighten the mood before the end two songs.

the performances of each of the musicians is very good as well, there is not one that I think could have performend this material better, though I would have prefered Mark Kelly's keyboards to have been slightly more prominent in the mix. Hogarth also gives a really good performance, though it takes half of The Invisable man for him to really hit his stride.

Overall this is a very enjoyable live album that showcases just how good Marillion are live, its not perfect but I highly recommend it, 4 stars.