THE ORIGINALS

Here is a true rarity; A Marillion boxset containing their best Fish-era albums. Here are 3 CDs of the original Marillion albums that all Marillion fans should have; "Script for a Jester's Tear","Fugazi" and "Misplaced Childhood". The box actually comes in very attractive special miniature double-LP sleeves as a bonus for collectors. They look like dowsized vinyl album sleeves and these are unlike the CD versions.

With a boxset like this there are always huge highlights:

"Script for a Jester's Tear" features the title track, The web, Garden party and Chelsea Monday. "Fugazi" features the excellent Assassing, Punch and Judy, Emerald lies, Incubus and the title track. "Misplaced Childhood" highlights include Pseudo silk kimono, Kayleigh, Lavender, Heart of Lothian, Blind curve, Childhood end?, and White feather. These three albums are my favourite Marillion works when Fish was the frontman and so this is a quintessential purchase if you do not have any of those CDs.

However, naturally you will not want this if you have the CDs already as it is an expensive purchase. You may see this at a collector's market or second hand shop and if so it is one you should not miss for its innovative packaging and scarcity. It is over 2 hours of solid Marillion when they were at their peak of success with the enigmatic Fish. The 1995 release is totally out of print in most countries so this rarity is a collectors delight.

Review Nº 264

"The Originals" is a very special compilation of Marillion and was released in 1995. This is a package that includes their three first studio albums, "Script For A Jester's Tear", released in 1983, "Fugazi", released in 1984, and "Misplaced Childhood", released in 1987. This is a very good and interesting compilation from the band because it includes practically all the studio albums from Fish era, with the exception of "Clutching At Straws", released in 1989.

"Script For A Jester's Tear", "Fugazi" and "Misplaced Childhood" are three fundamental albums of Marillion because they represent the beginning of the band and the neo-prog sub-genre. They are probably, the three best representatives of their music in Fish's era, and for many, like me, "Script For A Jester's Tear" and "Misplaced Childhood" are the two greatest masterpieces from the band. So, we are in presence of three great progressive rock albums from the 80's.

As I've already reviewed these three albums previously on Progarchives, in a more extensive way, I'm not going to do it again. So, if you are interested to know, in more detail, what I wrote about them before, I invite you to read those my three reviews. However, in here I'm going to write something about them in a more short way. So, of course, I'm not going to analyze them track by track, as I did before, but I'm only going to make a global appreciation of the albums.

"Script For A Jester's Tear": "Script For A Jester's Tear" was released after their fantastic EP "Market Square Heroes". It's commonly accepted that it's with "Misplaced Childhood" the two best studio albums released by the group in the music era of Fish. In a certain way it was as important as "In The Court Of The Crimson King" of King Crimson was for the progressive rock music in the 70's. It's true that in the summer of 1982 the punk explosion was gone but remained some echoes, a parade of a new romantic musical movement. So, when the music world seemed to be at the mercy of the new romantics, "Script For A Jester's Tear" represents a landmark and a breath of fresh air that progressive rock music, so needed at the time. We can even say that since "Script For A Jester's Tear" the world of progressive rock has raised again and no longer was the same. Somehow, it opened the doors to the boom of the progressive roc in the 90's.

"Fugazi": In relation to "Script For A Jester's Tear", "Fugazi" shows some musical differences. Marillion streamlined the intricacies of group's progressive rock leanings for a more straight ahead rock identity. Still, it remains clearly a Marillion's album. We even can say that, in a certain way, "Fugazi" remarks Marillion's consistency on their musical direction solidifying the group. Perhaps "Fugazi" is the weakest album of Marillion in Fish's era. But saying this, it seems like a sacrilege. Marillion has no weak albums in Fish's era. So, "Fugazi" is still a great piece of music. It's true that "Fugazi" has two tracks with musical quality below from the others, "Emerald Lies" and "She Chameleon". So, for that motif, "Fugazi" can't be considered a masterpiece, as happened with their preceding album "Script For A Jester's Tear" and their following album "Misplaced Childhood". But, "Fugazi" remains, for me and without any doubt, a great piece of music. "Fugazi" is an excellent album that can be recommended to all progressive rock fans, just simply if you don't compare it, too much, with the previous one, because there's music here for every progressive rock fan to love.

"Misplaced Childhood": "Misplaced Childhood" is a conceptual album, the first conceptual album released by the group. With its lush production and mix, this album became the greatest commercial triumph of the band, especially in Europe where the group raised the peak of their fame and became known as one of the most famous progressive rock bands in the world. The album featured also the most successful single of the group, "Kayleigh". "Lavender" was another song that was also released as a single and it was also a great commercial success. Besides, it's their most commercially successful album. "Misplaced Childhood" is, for many, their best studio album, either. Even Mike Portnoy considered it the best Marillion's album of all time. With "Misplaced Childhood", Marillion proved they weren't a clone of Genesis and with it they reached the status of be considered one of the best progressive rock bands in the world.

Conclusion: If you have already these three studio albums you don't need to buy this compilation. Despite the box comes in a special miniature double album's sleeve, it hasn't practically anything new to offer, like bonus tracks. However, if you don't have these three albums yet, this is an excellent alternative for buying these albums. By the other hand, if you are a hard fan of the group, this is a rarity and certainly it would be a truly delight for you as a complement of your progressive rock collection. But if you don't have these albums already, it's urgent to buy all the three. These three albums represent some of the best progressive rock pages written in the 80's. When the times were against the progressive rock music bands, which would later be called neo-prog bands such as Marillion, IQ and Pendragon, it was very importants for the spirit of prog. So, these three albums made part of some of the best prog, made in those times.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)