Marillion

[tri.ad]

You knew it had to happen.

Great, great band. I now have all Fish-era albums and they're pretty much all very good to awesome. Now checking out the albums with h. Any albums I should avoid or not care about?

[Nick]

First 5 albums, especially the first 4 Fish ones, are awesome. Clutching at Straws is a masterpiece.

[skydivingninja]

Well, I CAN tell you to buy Season's End, Brave, Anoraknophobia, Marbles, and Happiness is the Road.

[prog.fusion]

Brave is one of the greatest albums ever. i absolutely love it.

[ZeppelinDT]

I've spent like the last few weeks going through their discography from the start.  I'm up to Brave.

Check out the This Strange Convention DVD.  Some pretty killer stuff on there.  (Including an amazingly awesome cover of Britney Spears' "Toxic")

[LudwigVan]

I'm one of those stubborn a-holes who maintains that none of the H-era stuff can hold a candle to Fish-era Marillion.   (what happened to the :flamethrower smiley)?

[zerogravityfat]

Everything Fish era is cheesy prog along the Rush lines. H era is where the good stuff is.

[Nick]

I'm one of those stubborn a-holes who maintains that none of the H-era stuff can hold a candle to Fish-era Marillion.   (what happened to the :flamethrower smiley)?

Yup, Seasons End comes close, but so called masterpieces like Brave and Marbles are not even close to as good as the Fish stuff in my book.

[ZeppelinDT]

I'm one of those stubborn a-holes who maintains that none of the H-era stuff can hold a candle to Fish-era Marillion.   (what happened to the :flamethrower smiley)?

Yup, Seasons End comes close, but so called masterpieces like Brave and Marbles are not even close to as good as the Fish stuff in my book.

You need a new book.

[skydivingninja]

I'm one of those stubborn a-holes who maintains that none of the H-era stuff can hold a candle to Fish-era Marillion.   (what happened to the :flamethrower smiley)?

Yup, Seasons End comes close, but so called masterpieces like Brave and Marbles are not even close to as good as the Fish stuff in my book.

Marbles surpasses all of the Fish stuff, in my totally amazing book printed on gilded paper from Jesus himself.  Clutching at Straws is second, though.

[ytserush]

My absolute favorites are Misplaced Childhood (favorite album of all time by any band), Clutching at Straws, Seasons End, This Strange Engine and Marbles. Haven't gotten the new one yet.

I pretty much love them all except for Brave and Afraid of Sunlight. Brave puts me to sleep and I do like King from Afraid of Sunlight.

I like most of Fish's solo stuff a lot too.

[Tick]

My absolute favorites are Misplaced Childhood (favorite album of all time by any band), Clutching at Straws, Seasons End, This Strange Engine and Marbles. Haven't gotten the new one yet.

I pretty much love them all except for Brave and Afraid of Sunlight. Brave puts me to sleep and I do like King from Afraid of Sunlight.

I like most of Fish's solo stuff a lot too.

Brave is epic !

[Phantasmatron]

I'm a fan of Misplaced Childhood, so I finally got around to listening to Clutching at Straws the other day.  It's pretty good on a first listen, and I'm betting that once I get to know all the songs better, I'll like it even more than Misplaced Childhood.

I didn't expect to like this band.  But they have some good stuff. 

[Dr. SeaWolf]

Everything Fish era is cheesy prog along the Rush lines. H era is where the good stuff is.

I really don't think I would label the Fish-era albums (with the possible exception of Jester's Tear) as prog.  They're more like really awesome pop-rock with prog-like tendencies.  The H-era stuff that I've checked out, while reasonably good (especially Brave), sounds so flat and monotone compared to the colorful and emotionally rich Fish-era material.

[Tick]

Everything Fish era is cheesy prog along the Rush lines. H era is where the good stuff is.

I really don't think I would label the Fish-era albums (with the possible exception of Jester's Tear) as prog.  They're more like really awesome pop-rock with prog-like tendencies.  The H-era stuff that I've checked out, while reasonably good (especially Brave), sounds so flat and monotone compared to the colorful and emotionally rich Fish-era material.

Totally disagree with that statement. The H shows the bands maturity through the years. I'm listening to the song, "This Strange Engine" as we speak. There is no Fish song that compares with its epicness.

[Nick]

Everything Fish era is cheesy prog along the Rush lines. H era is where the good stuff is.

I really don't think I would label the Fish-era albums (with the possible exception of Jester's Tear) as prog.  They're more like really awesome pop-rock with prog-like tendencies.  The H-era stuff that I've checked out, while reasonably good (especially Brave), sounds so flat and monotone compared to the colorful and emotionally rich Fish-era material.

Totally disagree with that statement. The H shows the bands maturity through the years. I'm listening to the song, "This Strange Engine" as we speak. There is no Fish song that compares with its epicness.

I've never heard it, but I can't help but disagree just knowing the epicness of some of the Fish material.

[ZeppelinDT]

So I've reached the "This Strange Engine" stage of my quest to play through the entire Marillion discography in order.

Man... this album has a SERIOUS 1-2 punch.  I think "Man of a Thousand Faces" is on its way to becoming one of my favorite Marillion tracks.  Mark Kelly blows me away on this one.  And "One Fine Day" has gotta be one of the best "slow" songs they've ever written.

Too bad the album gets slightly derailed with track 3 - "80 days".  Man, that song is all kinds of silly. 

[Tick]

So I've reached the "This Strange Engine" stage of my quest to play through the entire Marillion discography in order.

Man... this album has a SERIOUS 1-2 punch.  I think "Man of a Thousand Faces" is on its way to becoming one of my favorite Marillion tracks.  Mark Kelly blows me away on this one.  And "One Fine Day" has gotta be one of the best "slow" songs they've ever written.

Too bad the album gets slightly derailed with track 3 - "80 days".  Man, that song is all kinds of silly. 

Wait untill you fully absorb the title track. Its legendary !

[ZeppelinDT]

So I've reached the "This Strange Engine" stage of my quest to play through the entire Marillion discography in order.

Man... this album has a SERIOUS 1-2 punch.  I think "Man of a Thousand Faces" is on its way to becoming one of my favorite Marillion tracks.  Mark Kelly blows me away on this one.  And "One Fine Day" has gotta be one of the best "slow" songs they've ever written.

Too bad the album gets slightly derailed with track 3 - "80 days".  Man, that song is all kinds of silly. 

Wait untill you fully absorb the title track. Its legendary !

I've been a Marillion fan for years, but for some reason I never got around to picking up the mid/late 90s albums (i.e., Afraid of Sunlight - Marillion.com) until recently.  So my first exposure to Afraid of Sunlight's title track was when they played it live at Marillion weekend last month.  It got an unbelievable ovation from the crowd (which was probably only topped when they played Ocean Cloud later that same night)

[Dittomist]

Hmmmm, here is how I would rank the Marillion albums, starting with their very best.

1. Marbles (double album)
2. Season's End
3. Misplaced Childhood
4. Afraid of Sunlight
5. Brave
6. Clutching at Straws
7. Happiness is the Road (Essence)
8. Anoraknophobia
9. Holidays in Eden
10. Fugazi
11. Marillion.com
12. This Strange Engine
13. Happiness is the Road (The Hard Shoulder)
14. Somewhere Else
15. Radiation
*I'm not that familiar with Script from a Jester's Tear just yet.

Such a great band. All of their albums contain some amazing music, so I suggest owning them all.

[Dr. SeaWolf]

Everything Fish era is cheesy prog along the Rush lines. H era is where the good stuff is.

I really don't think I would label the Fish-era albums (with the possible exception of Jester's Tear) as prog.  They're more like really awesome pop-rock with prog-like tendencies.  The H-era stuff that I've checked out, while reasonably good (especially Brave), sounds so flat and monotone compared to the colorful and emotionally rich Fish-era material.

Totally disagree with that statement. The H shows the bands maturity through the years. I'm listening to the song, "This Strange Engine" as we speak. There is no Fish song that compares with its epicness.

I've never heard it, but I can't help but disagree just knowing the epicness of some of the Fish material.

By "epic" I think he mostly means "long", since the song is over 15 minutes long.

[ytserush]

Epic? Try Plague of Ghosts on Fish's Raingods With Zippos album.

I haven't memorized the track total time, but I think it's about 22 minutes long (It's split up into 6 tracks). The studio track doesn't even do it justice. It ends live with the crowd singing as the band walks of the stage before the encore a la Marillion's Happiness Is The Road live.

This Strange Engine is in my top three of Hogarth Marillion albums. I really love the natural delivery of the vocals on it. For whatever reason, he's never done the vocals the same way since. It's my favorite performance vocally. It's a very organic album. I love every song on it.

[Tick]

Epic? Try Plague of Ghosts on Fish's Raingods With Zippos album.

I haven't memorized the track total time, but I think it's about 22 minutes long (It's split up into 6 tracks). The studio track doesn't even do it justice. It ends live with the crowd singing as the band walks of the stage before the encore a la Marillion's Happiness Is The Road live.

This Strange Engine is in my top three of Hogarth Marillion albums. I really love the natural delivery of the vocals on it. For whatever reason, he's never done the vocals the same way since. It's my favorite performance vocally. It's a very organic album. I love every song on it.

I was fortunate enough to see Fish live in New Haven last year. Awesome show ! I have almost all his solo stuff. Sunsets on Empire is my fav.

[tri.ad]

Listening to Brave for the second time right now... Goodbye To All That definitely is too long, h sometimes overdoes it with the whispering, but the run from The Hollow Man to The Great Escape is damn amazing (the title track in particular). Made Again doesn't fit the album's mood at all, though. Thinking about deleting it from my collection and leaving The Great Escape as the ending track...

[ZeppelinDT]

FYI - Any fans of "This Strange Engine" should check out the new "This Strange Convention" DVD.  The first part (Friday night) is that entire album played live.

[Tick]

Listening to Brave for the second time right now... Goodbye To All That definitely is too long, h sometimes overdoes it with the whispering, but the run from The Hollow Man to The Great Escape is damn amazing (the title track in particular). Made Again doesn't fit the album's mood at all, though. Thinking about deleting it from my collection and leaving The Great Escape as the ending track...

Brave is one of those albums you need to absorb several times before it really hits you. I heard it 10 times or more before I really got the brilliance of it.
Listening to the song "One Fine Day" at the moment from This Strange Engine.

[Zoom E]

I'm one of those stubborn a-holes who maintains that none of the H-era stuff can hold a candle to Fish-era Marillion.   (what happened to the :flamethrower smiley)?

I concur.

[aurorablind]

Love this band! Definitely in my top 10 list of favorite bands of all times..
Favorite albums:
Misplaced Childhood, Clutching at straws, Brave and Marbles..

[ytserush]

Epic? Try Plague of Ghosts on Fish's Raingods With Zippos album.

I haven't memorized the track total time, but I think it's about 22 minutes long (It's split up into 6 tracks). The studio track doesn't even do it justice. It ends live with the crowd singing as the band walks of the stage before the encore a la Marillion's Happiness Is The Road live.

This Strange Engine is in my top three of Hogarth Marillion albums. I really love the natural delivery of the vocals on it. For whatever reason, he's never done the vocals the same way since. It's my favorite performance vocally. It's a very organic album. I love every song on it.

I was fortunate enough to see Fish live in New Haven last year. Awesome show ! I have almost all his solo stuff. Sunsets on Empire is my fav.

That's a great album too.  One of my favorites along with Vigil In A Wilderness of Mirrors, Internal Exile, Raingods With Zippos and 13th Star.

Saw him 4 times on the Sunsets Tour. Twice on the 13th Star Tour (Nearfest and Philly) and twice on the Raingods Tour (Philly, New York City) Just 3 U.S. Tours since he Marillion 21 years ago.

[Nick]

That NEARfest show was so awesome, can't wait till the DVD is available.

[ytserush]

That NEARfest show was so awesome, can't wait till the DVD is available.

It should be out fairly soon. I think I read the finishing touches were being put on it.

Until then, we enjoy it in other ways.

[tri.ad]

So I got Afraid Of Sunlight recently and it's a very good album, definitely a worthy successor to Brave. The last four tracks are absolutely stellar.
The only thing about it that I don't really like is the general sound, it lacks some punch and the snare and kick drum are mixed too low.

[zerogravityfat]

happiness is such an epic song, i love it when it comes on my ipod.

[changing_seasons]

This is gonna be a major bump, but I had to share it.

I think I may be coming out of my Dream Theater obsession, and Marillion is the band setting me free! I remember liking Easter from the 5YIAL DVD, and so I thought I'd check out the rest of the discography. I haven't listened enough to have a favorite album yet, but I really like the guitar work, and Steve Hogarth's voice is cool too. I already knew I liked Pete Trewavas' bass style from the Transatlantic albums. Actually, I'd put Marillion and Transatlantic in the same position, being music I like listening to more than playing.

Anyway, I now see the joys of discovering new music you actually like. I just hope I don't get bored with it like I normally do. It's looking good though.

[lonestar]

Clutching at Straws is in my top 5 of favorite albums, and Sugarmice is probably my favorite of all songs.
The line,"If you want my address, it's number one at the end of the bar, where I sit with the broken angels clutching at straws and nursing our scars" gets me every time.