SOMEWHERE ELSE

Somewhere Else is a divisive album amongst Marillion fans - much like Radiation, which exhibits a rather similar approach. Like Radiation, the album finds Marillion opting to concentrate on shorter, poppier numbers with a healthy dose of 60s influence (at points getting outright spacey or psychedelic), though on the whole I would say it's a slightly more successful album than its predecessor.

Part of this is down to a much better production job, which brings out the psychedelic influences on the songs much more clearly and genuinely makes the album more pleasant to listen to on the whole. Part of this is a more artful running order, which mixes more progressive songs in with the more straight-ahead pieces (I swear people would give Radiation an easier time if all the least progressive - and, I will admit, least good - songs weren't all crammed to the front of the running order). But I'd say a bigger part of it than all of these is that even though they are not going out of their way to be super-progressive at this point, neither are Marillion trying hard to be anything other than Marillion. There's no embarrassing chasing of indie-pop credential, as many fans (including myself) felt there was on Radiation.

On the whole, I wouldn't put Somewhere Else in the top rank of Marillion albums, and it's certainly not their proggiest effort, but I would say it's one of their more successful attempts at hippified mildly proggy pop (alongside Anoraknophobia and Marillion.com). In fact, I'd say that at this point there are two clear traditions in H-era Marillion which have kind of developed in parallel - lush crossover prog albums like Brave, Afraid of Sunlight and Marbles on the one hand, and poppier pieces like Holidays In Eden, Radiation and Somewhere Else on the other. Unfortunately, I'm not convinced that the pop-Marillion strand has ever measured up to their more prog-inclined albums, but this is a perfectly pleasant listen and anyone who thinks Holidays in Eden got a raw deal will likely find something to like here.