MARBLES

Not having previously heard any post Fish era Marillion, I bought the double CD version of the album on the strength of hearing "Neverland" repeatedly on internet prog radio and also reading the mainly high praise reviews on this website.

My initial reaction on playing the album was huge disappointment as "Neverland" seemed to be the only decent track. At about this stage I saw the band live and was impressed with their tight, well rehearsed performance and also the showmanship of Steve Hogarth. I still came away with mixed feelings about the music though.

I now know the CD inside out and in my view it is a mix of a few great tracks and several less than ordinary ones.

Is it prog or not? Well it's much more singer/lyric oriented than I generally go for. No long instrumental passages to be found.

Do I like it? On balance yes, because when it's good it's very good. Hogarth's voice takes a bit of getting used to. He has a decent vocal range and sings with great emotion but it's just not a particularly nice voice - rather as if he sings through his teeth!

The musical arrangement of the songs is excellent as illustrated in the three long tracks "The Invisible Man", "Ocean Cloud" and "Neverland" - these are the pick of the album, all three superb.

Not far behind these three are two much more commercial tracks "Fantastic Place" - a kind of prog/ballad/rock - and "You're gone" - an uplifting song with an incessant and infectious drum beat. Perhaps not proggy but so what? I think both are excellent.

Plenty of tracks left but, for me, only "Angelina" and perhaps "Drilling holes" rise above the mediocre. "Don't hurt yourself" is a pop song more suitable to a band such as The Mavericks; "Genie", "The Damage", "The only unforgivable thing" and the four "Marbles" tracks are just dire.

Put the five great tracks plus "Angelina" and the just about presentable "Drilling holes" on a single CD and you'd have a really good album. Overall, I certainly recommend it with those reservations in mind. I play it a lot but having given the poor tracks plenty of chances to grow on me I've now given up on them and always miss them out.

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