FUGAZI

Please don't stone me ! I know... I should like this record but I can't, I am determined to fall in love with it, but I don't... so my review has to deal with the answer "why". A lot has been said about old time Marillion and I'm sure it doesn't make much sense to go into those albums song-wise again, and with Ian Mosley having arrived "Fugazi" should have been a big improvement to the debut, to which my review says "the only thing that keeps it from being a true 5-star-album is the drumming". So let me try to give you an answer to the urging question "well, what's wrong ?".

I can bow my head and say "well, it may be me, cause in many ways Fugazi is an improvement and my poor rating might be due to the fact that I am no real proghead". And, in parts, this is the right answer for sure, but let me explain why to me there's more to that. I do believe that good music needs space to breathe. If it doesn't have, it starts to sound "dead" to my ears. And exactly this is the trap that those wonderfully talented guys and their producer got caught in here. I can hear it - the playing is superb, the craftsmanship immense, the songs are quite interesting, but in the end - everything sounds one and the same to me, and this "one and the same" had its lifely feel extracted due to the perfection of the final product. Or, with other words, it starts straining me ! Cause where I like the mood and feel of "Script" wholeheartedly all I get here is a lot of cold construction that makes me beg for someone, somewhere to give it LIFE.

This record has got the word "attack" written all over it - and yes, attack it does, but it fails to please me to this very day. Well, as I said, it may be my fault... but my prayers had been heard, cause in Concert - as anyone can witness when listening to "Real to reel" - the band managed to put the life back into the music. To me, this difference is like day and night, and to this day it remained a fact that the only way I can really enjoy the songs of "Fugazi" is in the blistering, driving, energetic live-performances that this band was capable of. The sheer fact that they were means I can't add a third star for the quality of the songs ( and, it has to be mentioned, the great lyrics to be found here ), cause given a little more time and a different approach to the production this album could have been a great one. Sorry.

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