Reviews discussion

Define greatness?

In my view the fact that I bought the vinyl of this album on the day it was released and still listen to it now some 31 years later when as a 47 year old Chartered Accountant you think I would know better!

Absolutely suberb

Posted Friday, November 10, 2006, 11:03 EST | Permanent link

MARILLION — Script For A Jester's Tear

I used to LISTEN seriously to THIS!!!!? What was I on!? Marillion together with Arena (who just happened to be a much later spinoff/imitation) were the most vulgar insult to progressive music ever created, because they not only created "neo prog," but all the evil hypocrisies that go along with it. Let's start first in the vocal/lyric department. Fish is an awful singer who tried not very hard to clone Peter Gabriel's approach circa Lamb Lies Down and Trespass. His screeching, histrionic, overbearing vocals sound more like a really bad imitation of Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson and though I'm not a great fan of Maiden, at least they didn't pretend to be something they weren't. The lyrics are written at first you think from someone whose heart is at least in the right place, but then you realize a tantrum throwing track like "Forgotten Sons" which sounds pro British Soldier anti IRA on first listening is just an excuse to write another twisted and violent song about death. Fish is the real problem here, choking you and suffocating you, but the whole band are a problem. This whole record is a lie. Progressive rock? No way!!! Marillion like all neo prog are like a bad marriage of overproduced heavy metal and smug allusions to a kind of music not only the band could care less about or understand, but a kind of music people didn't understand who liked this nonsense. There isn't one passage here that I can listen to, in fact I will never listen to anything by Marillion with Fish again and haven't for years! To give credit where credit is due, after Fish left Marillion released TWO good albums- Season's End (I've really just been told its good by a friend of mine) and Holidays In Eden (this is great and you should listen to what an improvement Steve Hogarth is), actually- make that two good records and one pretty good attempt at making a concept album- the underrated and very listenable Brave. Back to this disaster, though, no matter how hard Marillion would try to avoid the mistakes of their past, they had commited the worst insult to progressive music ever with Fish and there is no forgiving them for it. The production is horrible and sounds like any other bad 80s production job, the lyrics are made even worse by Fish's delivery which is to scream, grunt, and yowl every word like someone has just stuck a knife in his back (wishful thinking), and the playing is so clunky that every tempo or mood change turns into a nightmarish exercise in inept arrogant w**king. The whole sound is bad, and Fish gets the bad music he deserves here. Neo prog? I'm even growing tired of IQ who I still have to admit I have a soft spot for (maybe because they didn't fake things and were honest) and I strongly feel there were things more "progressive" in Shy, Grand Prix, Tobruk, and the other Brit/American hard pomp rock bands. Pomp was what prog turned into, not this neo nonsense. The absolute worst track on the album is "Forgotten Sons" made even worse by the fact you know a bad imitation of "The Knife" is coming for a whole album. He even has the nerve to use the line "For Those Who Trespass Against Us" in it! What would the average soldier who Fish is trying to convince do to him? Sock him in the jaw! He'd probably more likely be a Deep Purple fan than a Marillion fan anyway. Give me Maiden if I want to be put into a painful state of mind when listening. The problem is that Bruce Dickinson was technically a very good singer who didn't always have the best material, Fish is a TECHNICALLY HORRIBLE SINGER who writes awful lyrics to go with awful material. There is no way to erase the shameful stain left on music by neo prog, and it began and was obnoxious here. Not even music