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Marillion - Misplaced Childhood CD (album) cover

MISPLACED CHILDHOOD

Marillion

 

Neo-Prog

4.27 | 2397 ratings

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Easy Livin
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
5 stars Growing up in public

After a couple of early album which, while competent and enjoyable, sounded a bit too like (Gabriel era) Genesis tribute albums, Marillion suddenly found their own identity with "Misplaced Childhood".

Nominally a concept album, this is not so much a story, as series of individual tracks blended together to form a coherent, beautifully constructed piece (as Genesis did with "Supper's Ready"). The album opens with orchestral keyboards introducing Fish on the brief but melodic "Pseudo silk kimono". This leads into a couple of what might be considered surprise hit singles. "Kayleigh" (a name which Fish apparently conjured up from the names Kay and Leigh, but which led to a generation of similarly named female offspring!), and "Lavender", an interpretation of the "Lavender blue" nursery rhyme song. These two tracks manage to achieve the usually elusive feat of blending in completely on a classic prog rock album, while simultaneously holding a wide commercial appeal.

The "Lavender" theme reappears in instrumental form later on side one, as part of a powerful lead up to the closing track (on LP side one), "Heart of Lothian". The title of this track relates to Fish's Scottish heritage, Lothian being the area in which the city Edinburgh is located (one of the city's football clubs is "Heart of Mid-Lothian"). Side 2 is the slightly weaker side, but it's all relative, and in CD format the album flows well from start to finish.

In summary the best album by far from the Fish era, and possibly the best Marillion album to date.

A special 2 CD edition was released a few years ago, containing studio rehearsals of the final tracks.

Easy Livin | 5/5 |

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