SOUNDS THAT CAN'T BE MADE

New Marillion album out. This used to be one of the musical highlights of my year, but not quite as much the last couple of years since "Happiness Is The Road." Although I'm feeling far more positive about this new release than about "Happiness is the Road" and the uninspired "More Is Apparently The Superior," I can't say I'm that much impressed with their latest album... In fact, I dare to say that, had I not been a fan for so many years before, and someone would have recommended it to me, I, amid the bulk of more refreshing and interesting sounding artists I get recommended lately, probably would harvest a song or 2-3 and discard the rest by now...

Okay, I realize this sounds a bit too harsh, for I know their music always takes some time to grow on me, and the music does sound well-produced and well-written, but it does not 'do' much for me so far, unlike when I first heard, e.g. "Marbles," or "Somewhere Else" (at a press listening party in Fame, Amsterdam at that).

'Gaza' feels like a melting pot of musical ideas, but it is far less fragmented than, and yes I'll blaspheme here for a little, 'This Strange Engine,' which I always found rather segmented. On 'Gaza,' at least, I felt that the various segments were quite exciting, as is the lyrical content about an infant's view on the Palestine conflict. The whole piece feels quite passionate and energetic, which I quite missed in their music since "Somewhere Else." Especially the "It just ain't right" bit felt like a-class, properly-developed Marillion, but on a whole the song is just a melting pot of too many ideas for one listen -and incidentally that thought popped into my head a bit too frequently while listening...

"Montreal" starts to become interesting far too late, about halfway through, and is not remotely up to par to their other longer suites, which have far more going for them. It's such a pity that this song also suffers from clear cuts in between its segments, but unlike 'Gaza,' the various sections are not as interesting. Plus after spending fourteen minutes listening to a diary-like story that already does not quite hit home and feels a bit dreary for the first 5 minutes or so, it is particularly unfair to cut the song off with an uninspired fade-out, and an extremely brief one at that!

What DID excite me a lot were the return of some incredible guitar solos, and Pete's bass lines sound phenomenal if you listen to the album on headphones. I also loved the use of more electronics on quite a bit of the music, however, Mark Kelly contrasted this with the same type of Casio presets (most noticeably on 'Montreal') that he's been using as part of their music since the 80s. Perhaps 30 years later it might seem the proper time to let those go? Yes, that's what some might call progression? And, for the love of God, will someone please break into their studio and destroy the effect pedals that are responsible for those horrific 'Asylum Satellite One' special FX that Rothery seems to use A LOT these days. Completely ruins what sounds like could be a great solo at the end of the album... (And incidentally, the guitar halfway through the last song is remarkably reminiscent of Snow Patrol's classic pop song 'Run,' though I don't dislike it here).

The result was that, in retrospect, the only song I felt was a proper Marillion classic -whether or not this sense of familiarity I felt with this song is a good sign? I know I still like it a lot!- is "Power". Great vocals, filled with a nice touch of drama at times, a good build-up, great bridge and closing section, and nice guitars. The title track sounds better upon repeated listening, but that piece of pop music that follows it sounds so run-down-the-mill that I fail to see why it is included among the other more mature-sounding pieces of music. These men can do so much better. 'Pour My Love' sounds good, but it is so trivial I fail to see the point. 'Lucky Man' is similarly un-progressive, but at least it is a good quality rock anthem-like song.

Overall, I feel like this is either one of those cases where there's much to be discovered on "Sounds That Can't Be Made" by repeated listening, or it really is simply an example of too many ideas cramped into an album that, at over 70 minutes long, already feels a bit stretched out. So far, and the album has been on repeat, I'm rooting for the first of these two things to happen. And, last, but not least, the music presented here stirred an appetite to write a review after such a long time. That has to count for something, I'd say.