ANORAKNOPHOBIA

Finding my copy of Marillion's 'Anoraknophobia' in a used CD store, I picked it up with fair expectations. I had listened to a fair bit of Marillion already and had been meaning to get into their music, but I recognized none of the material on this album's tracklist. In other words, this was going to be a blind purchase of sorts. I figured it wasn't going to be their most mind-blowing release, even a bit mediocre, but for such a fair price, I wasn't going to pass up a prog album I could at least have a few decent listens with... I'm happy to say the album went above and beyond my expectations.

From the first listen, I was very impressed. Marillion's meld of progressive rock and accessible traits reminded me alot of my favourite band, Porcupine Tree.

While 'Anoraknophobia' doesn't work on a great album-centric level, there are some songs here that are absolutely amazing. The flow connecting the songs doesn't function as well as the band must have hoped, but two songs here in particular make 'Anoraknophobia' an incredibly worthy album. The two 'extended compositions;' 'When I Meet God' and 'This Is The 21st Century' get the curtains crashing.

Both of these songs are incredibly moving. Neither of the songs adopt any highly upbeat- uptempo moments throughout their duration, but both of the songs get very dramatically intense, despite the fact they are both slow.

Songs like 'Separated Out' (which if anything, is the cause for a nice belly laugh, plenty of humourous references in there, including an homage to none other than the Ramones!) and 'The Fruit Of The Wild Rose' are a bit forgettable, but nice listens nontheless, and something that certainly aren't a chore to listen to.

My one main gripe with the album is generally the flow, although that could have been remedied for the most part if the band had made 'This Is The 21st Century' the dramatic closer instead of inserting 'If My Heart Were A Ball, It Would Roll Uphill' as the final track, which shallows in comparison. 'This Is The 21st Century' would have been the PERFECT closing track, and would have left the listener on an ending note of emotional shock, and the actual closer does not have that effect at all.

Flaws aside however, I am so happy I found this album. This album has really set me up to delve into some of the band's certified masterpieces. An excellent album!

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