ANORAK IN THE UK LIVE

I was quite sceptical about this live "Anoraknophobia". The studio album was not really a great experience but, intelligently three of the best songs of this album are featured here : "Separated Out", "Between You & Me", and "If My Heart Were A Ball It Would Roll Uphill". Only "The Fruit Of The Wild Rose" is missing (I am referring to the good songs only here).

Two BRILLIANT moments are available on this CD. "Seperated Out" and "Between You & Me". Extremely wild and passionate. Very few times have I been laudatory about Mark II Marillion, but these are very good songs (I mentioned this already in my review of the studio album). It has of course nothing to do with their usual repertoire (Mark II, I mean) : great rock songs were not too many. They should maybe have investigated more into that direction...

Instead of "The Fruit", we'll get the horrific and funky "Quartz". As weak as on the studio work. "Map Of The World" sounds a little better. At least it rocks a little bit more. "If My Heart... " has been converted into a hard-rock piece of music. Funky-metal if you prefer at least during the first five minutes. After this, it can be used as narcoleptic.

I'm afraid that "Out Of This World" is as insipid as on ..."Afraid Of The Sunlight".

Once you're through the emotionless intro for "King", the whole band starts to really kick your a..., and rocks again alright during the instrumental parts.

"The Great Escape" from "Brave" is also a great improvement in comparison with the studio version. Rothery's guitar solo is incredibly good. You just need to stand the first minute and its karaoke mood to discover it; another good moment of this live recording.

"Answering Machine" is as trashy as the original. Noise annoys.

The original idea was to release a double album, but their record comany decided to release a single CD version as well. They also wanted one track of this version to be unrealeased. The band was not in favour of the idea, but decided to include "Easter". Since I have based my review on the double CD version, I can not judge this version of "Easter".

From five out of ten, I will upgrade this live album to three stars. Be aware that this is not really for progheads since the best songs featured here sound almost hard-rocking.