SCRIPT FOR A JESTER'S TEAR

The title track has some great piano and synth, not to mention the carnival and pipe organ. When the drums come in, they wing their way through a rather odd time signature. But I doubt I can put my finger on it. "So here I am once more in the playground of broken hearts.the game is over." Nice lyric. The guitar solo, beginning at 2:31, has a weird, piercing tone.makes me wonder if Rothery was using any effects. The problem is, at 8:40, it's a bit wearying, mainly because there's not too much going on to support the track length. It could've been cut down to about 7 minutes and it would have had a better effect. Rothery takes another solo at 3:25, yet it sounds much like the first one.

"He Knows You Know" is a different story, mainly because it's of an acceptable length, and it deals with a sad subject. The lyrics are great; "singing psychedelic praises to the depths of a china bowl". Good job. The only thing I don't like about this song (and this is a problem I have with the entire CD) is that when Fish (Derek Dick) tries to reach up into his register, he comes off as a third-rate Brian Johnson (AC/DC). I choked when I heard it the first time, but I closed my eyes and actually imagined Johnson singing this song. Again; the same tone is used for the guitar solo at 2:55.

"The Web" has some excellent synthesizer and drums, but I could have gone for a bit of a tension build-up in the intro. Fish's patented squeal starts at 0:10, and for a song which lasts nearly 9 minutes, he could've waited at least a minute and a half. He didn't. That's pretty much all I can say about it.

Mind you, I don't mind listening to songs that are 8, 9 minutes and up (Some of Dream Theater's best tracks are that length and more, and with me being a Rush fan and all, that's pretty much mandatory!); but in order to get a person to listen to something like that, there needs to be a sense of drama. Sadly, I've yet to find it here.

Now.back to the review.

Garden Party kicks off with vocal samples (do we gotta?) and fades in a synthesizer. Again, it's an acceptable length. Nice drums too, and Fish waits nearly a minute before he opens his mouth (thank you, Derek). Pointer adds some great drum and cymbal accents as well. The lyrics are pretty good, and thus far, I can safely say that this is the best song on the record. Sadly, we're four songs in, and it only has six songs on it. Chelsea Monday seems to have a horror movie intro (not a plus in my book), before leading into some plodding bass and drums. Rothery sounds spacey here, as does Derek. Suddenly, at 2:09, it picks up and Rothery starts playing like his life depends on it, with a guitar solo that left me astounded. I'm impressed. (Happy look) It ends at 3:39, with an acoustic (or clean electric) replacing the distorted guitar. Props to Kelly for the church organ as well. I am not, however, following the lyrics in the slightest.

Forgotten Sons has more sampled sound effects, then picks up the tempo nicely, while Derek echoes his vocals and completely indecipherable lyrics. The 1:02 mark is where Rothery delivers a great solo, and I gotta say: For someone who only seems to use one tone (on this record anyway), he does quite a nice job. At 1:30, Derek begins to yell again, but I'm trying to tune him out.

(throwing my hands up in the air). Y'know, I'm really (really) tryin' to dig this disc. Silly of me that I TOTALLY bought into the (over-)hype surrounding this group, and this record in particular. Sadly, Marillion strikes me as a group that does not innovate, but merely reiterates. So, how do I rate this? (sigh) It's certainly nothing new (and certainly overrated), yet in places it holds a nice touch. I'm gonna go ahead and give it three stars, and wait for the fan(boy)s to get mad at me.

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