MARBLES

I had this double CD a long time already. And a friend rebuked me for not having written a review about it yet. All right, mea culpa. I don´t remeber hearing the CD since I got it some 3 or 4 years ago. I do have some prejudice against Hogarth-era Marillion. After all, Fish-era Marillion was pure symphonic prog. The new band (I refuse to think of Marillion as the same group, even if the musicians are still the ones that played on their classic stuff) is totally different: it´s hardly prog at all. They play a kind of alternative/pop stuff with some hints of prog here and there.

That said, I must admit I liked Marbles a lot. It is one of their best with the new singer. It has far more memorable melodies than most of what I heard from them since Season´s End or Hollydays on Eden. Unlike much of their late 90´s and early 00´s stuff, Marbles has less experimental tunes and much more straight forward songs. Steve Hogarth in particular is singing better than ever, but that was expected. he mixes very well his vocal techniques with the necessary passion and conviction. On the other hand the isntrumental parts are good, but a bit subdue most of the time, specially Hogarth´s guitar. That´s not really a bad thing, since everybody here is working for the music as a unit. A real team´s work with no ego battles.

Marbles is one of the very few Hogarth era CDs that I hear from beginning to end without skipping a single track. Some songs are obviously better than others, and there is a little filler here and there, but that was to be expected in such long running time (again I must smit they are quite few in those two discs, considering much of what they were doing until then). Production is average. I can´t really point any highlights, but I do enjoyed the opening Invisible Man a lot.

Conclusion: if you forget that you´re hearing the same musicians (minus singer Fish) that made such symphonic masterpieces in the 80´s, then chances are that you can consider Marbles a fine album by a pop/alternative/prog band. I had some troubel rating this work. As iti is, I found ti to be very good, ok, and sometimes even bordering the excellent, but I doubt it would made an essential item to a prog music colletion. So it really deserves more than just a 3 star rating. I guess, for a prog site, that 3,5 stars is more fitting.