13TH STAR

I gave "Somewhere Else" five stars so it would be unjust and unfair to give other mark for this album. Of course these albums represent different sides of Marillion - present Marillion is technical, subtle, delicate and it fits to the maestro of vocal technique, Mr Steve H, whereas our gentle giant is a more of a lumberjack than a singer, but has greater lungs and greater heart. Mr H shows us emotions but he could not sing with such a passion like Mr Fish sang on the first four Marillion albums. And this album evokes the spirit of passionate, Fish-era Marillion. Do not expect "Misplaced Childhood" of course, but IMHO "Thirteenth star" could compete with "Clutching At Straws" (incidentally, album was promoted at "Clutching At Stars" tour, celebrating 20th anniversary of 1987 Marillion album). The album was conceived as a suite and this aim was achieved - that is very much in nowadays prog. Add very nice tunes (Listen, for instance to the opening part of "Zoe 25"), interesting guitar playing and skillful accentuation of important moment, important words - all these things were present in old Marillion. Lyrics are a bit overlonged, but this is what we liked in old Fish records - obvious texts about screwed up relationships. The highlight of the album is "Manchmal" - Fish comes back to old tradition of using foreign words to enrich the text and singing in Hammill's way. On the other hand he could do with little less dance loops and with proper keyboardist instead. Very good album. I bought the CD on a gig, but these songs do not sound good live, IMO. Played in "rocky" way and all the subtlety was lost.