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Marillion - Afraid Of Sunlight CD (album) cover

AFRAID OF SUNLIGHT

Marillion

 

Neo-Prog

3.82 | 810 ratings

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LiquidEternity
Prog Reviewer
2 stars This album is one of the most uninspired and uninspiring I've run across.

Okay, so it's not horrible. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just pointing out that, as far as a progressive album goes, there is so very little creativity poured into this record as to make it somewhat depressing. I haven't made up my mind on the Fish and H debate, but I must add that while H is a much better singer, the Fish period seems to have much stronger and more interesting music on the whole. By this point, Marillion is easing itself of the neo-prog genre and into the mainstream pop or rock sort of field. Sure, the songs are longer than on most commercial albums, but even still they are more like drawn out simple tunes. It ends up placing Marillion much closer to the shoegaze genre than to any particular progressive category. Now, an album doesn't have to be progressive to be great, but something is seriously lacking on this release to give it the punch it needs to pull of the length it has.

There are two songs on here that are exceptions to the problems above. The first, Cannibal Surf Babe, is an odd song that draws influence from surfer music. It's not a terribly well written song, but at least the band was trying something a bit different from the rest of their songs. The other song is, in fact, a wonderful song. The title track has one of the best chorus melodies that the band ever wrote, no matter the era. H's voice sounds absolutely perfect on the track, proving that the band really could be creating much more impressive music than they did for this album. It is, I believe, the presence of this song that ever gets me to listen to the album any longer. It's not enough to fix the remaining 45 minutes, but it is enough to make this album not a complete waste of money.

Fan of H? Jump on here. Fan of neo-prog? Maybe. Check it out before you buy it, I'd say. It's a rather lacking effort, but I am sure that plenty of Marillion fans would enjoy it. If you want something soft and not demanding, this might be a good release for you.

LiquidEternity | 2/5 |

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