MARILLION

So here I am once more in the playground of the broken hearts. Boah!! What a start of an album. And then this final part, this monster of a guitar solo over this innocent line "Can you still say you love me?", not to forget all those little word games in the slow section. No wonder I named one of my best private cocktail creations after this song. But unfortunately there is what I call the rhythm part in between. For more than 20 years I didn't mind it, Script For A Jester's Tear was firmly one of my Top 5 songs. But now that I've heard it what feels like ten thousand times, it feels repetitive and a wee bit boring so I've been trying to avoid the song for quite some time now. But it's certainly not as bad as The Great Gig In The Sky, I still love the first two and the last three and a half minutes of Script. Unfortunately it is impossible to cut out the part I don't like so much, so I will have to keep avoiding it or get over the dislike (probably the latter).

However, nothing has changed about the five other songs on the album. They are still among the best Neo-Prog has ever delivered. My personal ranking and rating of them has always remained the same. The issue about the title track reduces the overall rating from perfect 5.0 stars down to 4.4, though I wouldn't swear on my life and magic that this will never change again. So it is 4 stars for now.

No one knows what causes a performer to come alive in a concert setting. This is part of the magical process that occurs during some live shows and it is in full evidence on this wonderful two CD offering from Eagle Records.

Live From Cadogan Hall is a live presentation of the More Is Less album. But where that album comes out dull and sterile, there is a complete reversal here. And it all comes down to Steve Hogarth's emotive interaction with the audience and his own stellar emotive singing. And I mean emotive with an upper case E.

Disc 1 is the complete More is Less album performed in the same track order, but with some greatly appreciated descriptions of the songs and the stories behind some of them. Go starts the concert with the same mesmerizing tone that kicks off the Marillion.com album and Steve Rothery's acoustic guitar solo is sublime, as Hogarth just gets his voice and sincerity warmed for the following song Interior Lulu, which is more enchanting and seductive than both the original version and the acoustic make over on More Is Less.

By the time we get to track 5, the More Is Less version of The Space, Hogarth is in full command of the audience and the rest of the band are firing on all eight cylinders, which is needed to make this completely different arrangement of this song work. It does, beautifully.

Disc 1 concludes with band favorites from the Anorakanophobia album , Quartz , If My Heart Were a Ball, and This Is The 21st Century. I personally don't like the material from this album due to it's excess verbiage but fan's of the album should like this make overs.

Before the Anoraknophobia songs, there's a beautifully moving version of it's not your fault song by SteveH wiith his solo piano as backing. It is a heartfelt masterpiece as Hogarth put's his entire heart into it.

Disc 2 starts off with another beautiful solo outer by H, a new reworking of No One Can that far excells from that the poppy studio original, before the band rejoin him for an acoustic reworking of Beautiful from the Afraid Of Sunlight album. One again, Steve H makes theses song's shine as well as reworkings of This Train Is My Life, Estonia and the evergreen Easter.

Disc 2 ends with a full electric version of the Three Minute Boy from Radiation, just to let the audience (and us) know that they can still rock at will.

LFCH is extremely well recorded and mastered, with the sound as clear as a bell. My only complaint is that Rothery's guitar is a little hidden in the mix on two songs, but that's all.

LFCH is a showcase live album for Steve Hogarth in that it shows off his live concert prowess and just how powerfully sensitive his vocals are devoid of the band's thundering electric sound. And, for that fact alone I highly recommend this wonderful double CD. 4 Stars.

The opening title track really sets the stage for what's to come on here. The track goes through several different sections and transitions perfectly from one part to another. However, the other tracks on the album are all very good as well, particularly Chelsea Monday, The Web, and the closer Forgotten Sons.

Of all the tracks on here, He Knows You Know is my least favorite, particularly because of Fish's vocal delivery, but I still do like the progression of the track, and feel like taking it out of the album would not be a wise decision.

This is a fantastic debut, and was a great foundation for the band to build upon on future albums, which grew further away from this sound.

Many of the songs on this album revolve around themes of self-loathing and alcoholism. While the music itself is dramatic, the lyrics are very descriptive and evocative, yet are written in such a way that they may resonate in many listeners. The music as well flows brilliantly at times, and songs such as the dramatic White Russian are highlights.

The amount of variety available on this album additionally contributes to its success. While the style remains similar, the songs possess different themes and tempos which keep it from being too samey or too boring, and the whole thing flows wonderfully.

As many of the songs on here are fantastically written with very poignant lyrics and many great melodies, I feel as though this is one of the albums that encapsulates the Fish era very well.

A concept album, Brave has a brilliant cohesiveness to it; however, that's not to say that the songwriting is not diverse or interesting. While some may find the album to be somewhat boring and directionless, I've come to appreciate nearly every song on here, and some of them are simply breathtaking and beautiful. Highlights, to me, are the songs Runaway, Alone Again in the Lap of Luxury, the beautiful title track, and The Great Escape. The rest of the album holds its weight as well, though.

Brave is a beautiful album and a great addition to Marillion's discography.

Regardless, Misplaced Childhood is probably my favorite album from the Fish-era, and potentially my favorite Marillion release. This album manages to flow flawlessly from track one to the end, and while some parts of it may seem samey or even resemble pop music, I find that the songwriting is top-notch, and the listening experience is very pleasurable. Every song manages to be some sort of highlight because of the album's flow, although special mentions must go to Blind Curve, Lavender, and Heart of Lothian.

All songs on here are certainly nice to listen to on their own, and the album is a very seamless listening experience as well. This album certainly deserves 5 stars from me.

The 17-min. opener ''Grendel'' was originally part of the expanded version of the ''Market square heroes'' single/EP from 1982.It's not only one of the best compositions Marillion ever created, but it is also much closer to the classic GENESIS sound than anything the band ever produced.A magnificent epic with even some CAMEL influences in the guitar solos, a completely epic atmosphere with Fish in his best form and some emphatic keyboard pyrotechnics by Mark Kelly, featuring multiple variations and lots of changing climates with a certain symphonic atmosphere coming out of the 70's, despite the strong synth component."Charting the single'', "Market square heroes" and ''Three boats down from the candy'', all three among the favorites in Marillion lives, are characterized by both symphonic and flashy keyboards and Trewavas' impressive bass work, introducing Fish'es unmet lyricism and the more accesible tunes of Neo Prog music, the two later come from re-recorded versions from the ''Punch and Judy'' 84' single.''Cinderella Search'' is the only track, that made to a Marillion full-lenhth album, here comes the single edit version from the ''Assassing'' 84' single, no more words, this is music poetry dressed with dramatic keyboards and great guitar soloing by Rothery."Lady Nina" and "Freaks" are both leftovers from the recordings of ''Misplaced childhood'', the first is accesible Neo Prog with rhythmic lines, among the least impressive tracks of the album, second one is typical Marillion-esque dark, lyrical Neo Prog with bombastic keyboards and spacey, almost PINK FLOYD-ian guitar work.''Tux on'' was included in the ''Sugar mice'' 87' single, among the last recordings of Fish with the group, this is narcotic, lyrical music, which slowly develops into a fantastic solo by Rothery, featuring the discreet keyboards of Kelly.The live version of one of Marillion's obscurities, ''Margaret'', comes from a performance at Edinburgh Playhouse in April 83', quite 70's influenced keyboard Prog with a jamming mood and a frenetic crowd supporting the band.

The band said goodbye to Fish with an awesome document on the unkown side of Marillion.If you don't own any of Marillion's singles or special CD versions with additional material, this is more than a must-have.

It is a concept album. It is melodic. It has odd times. It has lots of keyboards. It has amazing lyrics. It has odd times. It has major chords and minor chords. The playing is fantastic.

And it had hits--the only reason that I think a lot of so-called "prog" folks look down on this album.

Bollocks. Listen to this one. Melody, lyrics, and musicianship all come together to give a listening experience that draws you in with one listen and keeps you listening for many, many years. That is a rare combination for a progressive band.

Just to get this off of my chest--by this album the "Genesis clone" thing is complete garbage. Fish has a vocal style much more in the vein of Peter Hammill than Peter Gabriel. The rest really doesn't resemble any period of Genesis at all unless you can't play a song in 13/8 without calling it a Genesis copy.

Absolutely essential for any progressive rock fan to hear. There are some very simple pop songs here (Kayleigh), an old nursery rhyme (Lavender), some mid-temp prog early power ballads (Heart Of Lothian), and straight up prog (Blind Curve). This is the perfect example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts--listen top to bottom and (even if you cannot admit it) you will enjoy this disc.

Marillion hit gold here both with sales and artistic integrity. Check it out.