MARILLION.COM

I'm so astounded with this album that, in many ways, it's bound to leave me speechless, something that's making it hard for me to write a review. I'm astounded about the music, which denies to be categorized as "prog rock" in spite of giving you a taster of it with "Interior Lulu". I'm astounded about the wide scale of emotions it's evoking, about the feel of just having got a trancefusion, to be filled with new blood and being reborn ( really, "Made again" ! ) whenever I did me the favor to listen through it, I'm astounded at life itself. I loved this album from the very start ( no, it did not take several spins, but it never changed after numerous re-spins ) and I'll always love it for its vitality, positive approach and willingness - marvelously transported so directly onto disc I couldn't escape the vibes if I wanted to, love it for its unbroken string of fabulous songs revealing all kinds of colors, love it for being so... astounding.

But also: I'm astounded about how poorly it's been rated in many places ( not exclusively here ), I'm astounded that, in terms of sales-figures, it ranks as the very nadir of this band's discography, I'm astounded and I'm struggling for words. "Marillion.com" may not be an "essential prog-rock-album", but it's essential music cause it gives you such a lot of what the essence of music itself is all about, and I do believe that if you, by any means, are a creative person yourself ( not only a consumer ), you ought to agree. If you see Marillion as a band with rather "depressive" material and moods - not my view at all but even some of my friends do so - then "Marillion.com" must be compared to an oasis with lots of colors and natural life: fresh green, mellow sunlight, vegetables, strong creeks with crystal-clear water cascading into beautifully paved brooklets... a very lively and pleasant place to be, but you'd have to stop listening after "Tumble down the years", though, and I rather tend to believe that the average reader of this site will rather skip through to that point, and if you're about to do so but still like Marillion for, say, "Brave"... then what may help you to dig this one is to view it as "the other pole" of the very same band, and it's not necessarily the "downside" then, it's more the "south-pole" when "Brave" represents the "North". I love the both of them though, slightly and maybe because of it being like a "soundtrack" to my personal inner quests and sufferings, I do prefer the "North", too.

I've got to stop this review, I'm running out of words. I don't wanna become a missionary - but it sucks to feel so alone with my love and devotion to this album. I'm willing to make one more concession to the terms of PA with the fifth star missing cause it was meant to serve you more than my personal pleasures, but this is an album I'd really like everyone to listen to and dig it, so it's of no great use to have an attempt to go through it song by song, but before I give up on writing any more to it I want to tell you which is my favourite bit of ".com". It's the first part of "Interior Lulu", before it distinctively bursts out into a prog-attack. I think that those four or so minutes are the best that this band has ever recorded. And, as a whole, "Interior Lulu" is no lesser a perfect epic than "This strange engine", I think it's got more passion as well as the different parts possess more coherency. But I'm not that much a prog-head. I'm only a music-lover with a soft spot for classical prog, too. I'm neither into Yes ( it's about Jon Anderson's voice here, I don't like it ) nor into Floyd ( though both of them have got their exceptions in my life ), but I'm into Marillion. Of course, "old Genesis", too.

"We get the things that we deserve" ? If only. I know that the words of this energetic rock song can sound cynical, even more when you're watching the fate of this album. But I want to believe in these words ( cause that's what they were written for ) so may be one day this world will really be a place of justice. And hopefully it won't be long until the day I'll find my words again - in order to re-write this review and give you a better one. Another possibility is: read my review to "Radiation" and simply believe me that "Marillion.com" perhaps requests the same sort of open-minded listening but is even better... it's a whole lot better... it's so much better I've just changed my mind and do the opposite to what I did there, I'll give it the rating it deserves now in order to mend my frustration and ask you to become a progressive being yourself instead of complaining this album weren't prog enough... okay ? I got the strange feel that this is the very right thing to do and the suspicion that these words are the best I'll ever find, so one more add: The opener is quite decent but, apart from its acoustic ending, not as good as the rest, but XyZ§!H% the rest is so much 5 star I won't omit the deserved overall recommendation again...

I'm astounded... that's ME ! Have mercy, I'm only a human being...

LOVE & respect from yours truly... Roop

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