I'm not entirely sure if they could claim to be the originators of crowdfunding, even if you just confine that to the music world --- I'm pretty sure Radiohead did it too, whether before or after I don't know --- but with this, their eleventh album, Marillion definitely set a new precedent when they asked their fans to pre-order the album after this, which they did, a model which would serve to free them from the shackles of record labels and finally take the final giant step to full independence.
This, then, would be their last album recorded with Castle Communications, leading to a totally self-produced and self/fan-financed future for the band. It's also another interesting mix of basic rock and pop as well as some really progressive tracks that almost nod back to their origins, and their first real attempts to integrate the burgeoning trip-hop genre into their music.
Marillion.com (1999)
Tapping into the massive influence the internet was exerting over every aspect of life as the century and millennium began to turn (this album was released in October), this was possibly the album that should have come at just the right time to spark interest. Unfortunately, nobody outside the progressive rock world cared, and with the album being released on an independent label there was little chance it was going to become an impulse purchase for anyone. But it remains a fine example of their work, and opens with a dreamy Hogarth vocal backed by swirling synth and soft guitar until it kicks up on the basis of Rothery's harder guitar and Mosley's driving rhythm. “A legacy” is a good opener, but there's nothing really of the prog about it, and for my money you really have to wait for any of that till nearly the end of the album. It is worth waiting for though.
Oddly, many of the opening tracks would have made good singles and could have gained Marillion radio airtime, but none were released. This has a nice sort of mid-paced boogie feel to it, good vocal and it's quite catchy but you would definitely have to feel it's more towards the lower end of Marillion's songwriting spectrum. Interestingly, it's the only track on the album (and possibly ever) on which John Helmer writes the lyric solo, and there is no input from Steve Hogarth, who conversely writes the rest of the album's lyrics solo, apart from the closer, on which he has help again from Helmer. SO you could maybe blame the lack-of-progginess on Helmer, but then “Deserve” is another straight rock song and it's all Hogarth's work. Sure, his inimitable lyrics are there ---
”We get the dreams that we deserve/ The magazines that we deserve/ Page one and three that we deserve” --- but the song plays much more like something you'd have heard from REM. They even use sax again, only the third time ever in their career, which makes the song song even less Marillion-like. It's a fast rocker which hints back at the cult of celebrity, and even nods its head across the years to the Fish years, and “Garden party”. I also, to be fair, hear hints of Fish's solo “Big wedge” here.
The first ballad is where you start realising this actually is a Marillion album after all, with “Go” riding on a sort of shivering synth line from Mark Kelly, then a very Marillion guitar from Steve before Hogarth comes in with the vocal, quiet and reserved, a haunting sound that's hard not to pay attention to. Some lovely rippling piano is added as Mosley hits the cymbals with a shuddering hiss, and Hogarth remarks
”It only takes a fraction of a second/ To turn your life upside-down.” It's an interesting song, in that it really has no chorus. We go from verse one to a nice little soft guitar solo from Steve, which then hardens up and kind of snarls at you, then into verse two and then what could be regarded as the chorus I guess but is really just a refrain on which the song fades out:
”Wide awake on the edge of the world.”
“Rich” is a more uptempo, boppy song with a nice jangly upbeat piano driving it, but again it doesn't really say Marillion to me. Some lovely Fender Rhodes I believe underpinning the melody with some handclaps and kind of eighties new-wave synth, swirling effects and a catchy chorus with a nice motto
”To fall is not to fail/ Failure isn't about falling down/ Failure is staying down.” By contrast then “Enlightened” brings everything back to earth with the second ballad, almost ethereal synth and guitar line which recalls “Estonia” off
This Strange Engine opening proceedings, ramping up for the chorus with a passionate vocal from Hogarth. Powerful and yet understated guitar solo from Rothery then it moves into its closing section, fading out slowly as it came in and leading into what many fans profess apparently to be one of the worst Marillion songs ever, but I really like it.
I mean, how can you not like a song with a title like “Built-in bastard radar”? It's another uptempo rocker, and explores the mystery of why women always go for the bad boys. Nice driving rock guitar from Rothery taking control, some little organ flourishes from Kelly and then Hogarth sings
”Guys who show how much they care/ Try hard to please but get nowhere/ You know that every girl on Earth/ Got built-in bastard radar!” And it's very true isn't it? One of life's mysteries, never to be solved. Treat em mean, keep 'em keen. Sorry, I'd rather be alone than act like that. The way the vocal is somewhat mechanised in parts adds to the sense of alienation perhaps of the “nice guys” who can't understand why women choose the bastards over them. Yeah, I like it, it's a good song and it's great fun. When Hogarth rolls his eyes and sings
”Thank God every woman knows/ It's piss and wind and fancy clothes/ That make a man a man/ Thank God for built-in bastard radar!” you just have to laugh at the irony of it all.
The song ends on a slowly descending organ which then merges with a sublime little guitar line as for me, the album finally starts to get going, and it makes a strong showing at the end with three amazing little tracks. “Tumble down the years” is a delightful bittersweet romp through memories and love, with a very catchy hook all through it. Hogarth remembers as he sings
”I took her hand and said/ Let's go together/ You and me against the world” and then goes on to recount the way hope like that, the first blush of romance and infatuation, and all those plans and dreams, slowly fade away and vanish ---
”Down the years/ We disappeared.”
The album then really picks up steam for the big finish, with two epics closing it out, and the lack of prog rock is firmly addressed as we head into “Interior lulu”. I've tried to find out what the title means but without success, and I have not been able to discern it from the lyric, so if you know please end my misery and tell me. It begins on a slick little bass line from Pete and a guitar line that would not be out of place on a Tom Waits song, sort of bongo style percussion and a soft vocal from Hogarth against now just the rhythm section. Kelly comes in with some Fender Rhodes and fades back out, leaving Rothery to take over before he joins back in again with a nice piano melody. The song, one of the longest Marillion have written, runs for over fifteen minutes, and at a length such as that, you would expect it to go through some changes. You would not be disappointed. In the fourth minute it explodes on a big guitar assault and organ flurry, as well as a thunderous attack on the drums before it drops down to a slow, almost melancholic, very dramatic guitar solo well into the fifth, which for me brings back the days of
Script for a Jester's Tear.
Hogarth comes back in with a strained vocal then, backed by howling synth and chimy guitar as the melody pulls into a harder, more intense vein and we move into another instrumental, this time taken by Kelly on the synth. Another
Script-like solo in the eighth minute, also recalling “Berlin”, then “Man of a thousand faces” peeks through on acoustic guitar as the song takes another shift before descending on a drony, eerie synth line with echoes of “Forgotten sons” leaking through, and a very it must be said Genesis synth backing with dark keys shrouding the tune. We're now in the tenth minute. Hogarth breathes
”We rejoice in being connected without touching/ Thank God for the internet!” and then at the sound of a storm Rothery grabs the melody by the scruff and nods to Kelly, who both then head off at a gallop, taking the song towards its conclusion.
Like the previous song, this one fades out in a long instrumental and slips very slowly and neatly into the next one, the closer, and one of my very favourite Hogarth-era songs ever. Marillion have done ballads before of course, but never as good as this. “House” rises on a gorgeous piano line and shimmering guitar, taking the best of Massive Attack and laying their own sound over it, drawing the stark image of a man left alone after his wife has left him ---
”After so much noise/ Freedom is silence/ Half the house is missing/ Taking half of me with it” --- as he wanders the now-so-huge home they used to share and tries to come to terms with being its only occupant.
I don't know if this is all Hogarth's lyrical genius or if Helmer had much to do with it (this being the only other song on the album he's involved in) but lines like
”Our eyes stare out/ While we hide inside” just strike such a chord with me, and bring home (hah) the utter desolation left in the wake of a divorce (maybe a death? But I think she just left him) and the refrain
”Looking at it not seeing it” really underlines this. Some excellent trumpet from Neil Yates and a final plea
”We built this house on solid ground/ Now it's crumbling, tumbling down/ Will nobody even cry for help/ As it slowly collapses into itself?” just bring tears to my eyes, as it does now. A stupendous closer, and if the rest of the album was as good as this and the previous two tracks it would be a lot higher on my personal list of favourite Marillion recordings.
As it is, it's not as if these songs save the album, but without them it would be something of a rather ordinary rock album. With them, it's more what we expect, and should be able to expect, another great Marillion album.
TRACKLISTING AND RATING
1. A legacy
2. Deserve
3. Go!
4. Rich
5. Enlightened
6. Built-in bastard radar
7. Tumble down the years
8. Interior lulu
9. House
As their final release on Castle, or indeed any label not controlled by them, this is a pretty special album. The pristine production is helped by having Porcupine Tree supremo Steven Wilson along for the ride, and though Stewart Every is here again, he's only credited as sound engineer, which ties in with what Hogarth was saying about the previous album; the main producer is shown as Marillion, with Wilson co-credited. The next album, as I mentioned, would be totally fan-funded and continue their progress towards a more commercial sound, but despite that would fail entirely to even enter the charts, as did this one.
But then, when have Marillion ever been about charting the single?
