FUGAZI

This album is fine, but not great. With ''Script'', Marillion proved that prog was still very much alive, amd did it with an album that was leaps and bounds beyond anything else around at that point in time. With FUGAZI, the band doesn't really evolve any. Sure, there are some great tracks, and I enjoy listening to them, but if we are going to expect another masterpiece from them, we will be dissapointed. FUGAZI is the second studio album Marillion ever released, so I suppose it is understandable that they would stumble a bit here, and try to find themzelves once again. Something Marillion seemed to do each album during the Fish years was attempt to re-invent themselves to suit the album's concept. With their next album, it would work, but with this one, it just seemed to be a re-hash of Script.

While I don't think simply repeating themselves here was their intention, and I also realize that the production of this album was cut short, I somehow think that had they really attempted to do something completely different rather than only a little, the result would have been alot better with this effort. Fish is superb as usual, and the addition of a new drummer adds some extra heaviness to it all. But the differences between the first two albums are slim, and often unnoticable. Because of this, FUGAZI remains my least favorite of Fish-era Marillion. Good, but non-essential. Perfect description, three stars.

Pros: More catchy tunes with enough prog to satisfy the elitists. Cons: Not enough diversity from the first album to make a huge impact on me.