So I never really bothered with the Hogarth era after Brave u til FEAR made me give them a chance again. So recently I’ve been going through it, and whilst some of it is just ok, what a fantastic album This Strange Engine is. I see certain other albums mentioned all the time but not this one.
FWIW, I think there is a segment of fans who hold TSE in pretty high regard. Certainly the title track is a fan favorite, as is Estonia. For me it has 3 great tracks (those 2 plus Man of a Thousand Faces) and the rest is a bit hit or miss, but it’s not a bad album.
I don't say this to argue, but to provide interesting contrast... I was a HUGE Marillion fan through Brave. I didn't get Afraid of Sunlight right away (in fact, it was worse than that) and so when I heard "This Strange Engine" I bailed. I didn't buy a single Marillion album until the buzz and rave over Marbles was too much to ignore, and so I bought it (and LOVED IT). I went back and listened to that which came out in between - Radiation, .com, and Anoraknophobia - and while none of it matched Marbles, they were good. Unfortunately, other than Estonia, nothing onTSE has risen up over the years. It's still the worst album up through Marbles, and second worst overall (I'm not counting "Less Is More").
I've been wondering this - the band seem to consider both
Less Is More and
With Friends From The Orchestra as part of their main studio discography, allowing
An Hour Before It's Dark to be their 20th studio album over-all, but how do fans feel about this? Both albums largely consist of re-recordings of older material, though in the case of LIM, it includes one new song. At least both albums don't have any over-lapping songs, but they are largely just compilations, despite the re-arrangements involved on both albums.
I personally own LIM but have rarely listened to it, and I think I streamed WFFTO once, and it was pretty good (the song choices on it were nice picks, IMO).
-Marc.