FUGAZI

When Marillion released the follow-up of their highly acclaimed debut album "Script for a Jester's Tear" a lot of people wondered if it could live up to the expectations created by it predecessor. Still people think that Fugazi is of lesser quality than Script, but personally I got to admit that I have listened to Fugazi a lot more than to Marillion's previous work. Mainly because it is a lot more darker and epic than their 1983 release.

Album opener Assassing sounds quite different, yet familiar compared to the band's previous output. It is a bit of a mixture of straightforward rock with the epic sound of the Garden Party song on their previous album. The lyrics of this specific song seem to be a lot more coherent than some of Fish's babble on the previous album.

Even more straightforward than the opening track is the second song on the album, Punch & Judy. Although it is straightforward rock that does not mean it is a weak track. Quite the contrary, it is one of my favourite tracks from the Fish-era, at the least from all the singles they released in the 1983-1987 or so period. The song is quite dark and depressing, featuring well written lyrics by Fish.

Coming next is my personal favourite Marillion ballad: Jigsaw. Marillion have written a few ballads during the Fish era (Kayleigh, Lavender, Sugar Mice come to mind), but only Jigsaw and Sugar Mice are the ones I still enjoy listening to. This might be because of the great atmospheres?! In the Jigsaw song, the overall tone of the instrumentation is very calm and fragile, most noticeable on Mark Kelly's keyboards. Fish's vocals sound also very fragile and whereas almost nothing from Marillion's Fish era music tends to do something for me personally on an emotion level, this song does pull an emotional string inside of me.

Emerald Lies is the song that marks the turning point on the album. Was most of the music up to this moment mainly focused on all the aspects but Symphonic Rock, this is where the epic madness really takes off. Starting of with a very bombastic introduction, the track immediately goes down a whole step and the overall tone is very calm and minimalist, with only Fish's vocals and Steve Rothery's guitar noticeable. perhaps the calm before the storm? Yes, it definitely is the calm before the storm: from around the three-minute mark the song is fairly heavy -at least for their standards- and Fish sounds more as a maniac than ever before. I love the way he sings on the 'chorus'.

I never really saw the link between Marillion and Genesis, regarding the comparison between Fish and Peter Gabriel, looking at it from the vocal perspective. Yeah, I know, the live performance was a bit nicked from Gabriel, but his vocals are not identical to him. Emerald Lies however is, together with Grendel, one of the few songs that have some resemblances to Genesis, vocally seen.

She Chameleon has never been much of a fan favourite, but for me it is one of the highlights from the Fish era. Characterised by its omnipresent synthesizer walls and the distinctive drumming, I fell in love with the ambience created by the band. Each individual instrument helps to sustain this mood. In one word: brilliant!

We are nearing the end of the album, with track number six, Incubus. Fish himself has stated that this is his favourite song he created while he was a band member with Marillion, but personally I got to admit I hardly ever listen to the song. This is mainly because I dislike the first segment of the song. It all sounds to 'happy' to me, compared to the other songs on the album. The only parts I can enjoy from the first four minutes are the quiet interlude parts. We have crossed the four-minute mark. A piano part begins which makes a lot more sense to me regarding the mood of the piece of music, compared to the overall atmosphere of the album. This part is ended with a guitar solo, like none of the others on the album. Sheer brilliance. And now the song's ending. I'm not too fond of this part too. It is too repetitive.

Here we are, the title track. Its distinctive and easily recognisable piano introduction work as a great introduction to what's coming up next. When the 1.16minute intro is over, there's total silence for a few seconds before Pete Trewavas lets his bass guitar roar in a very low pitch. Mark Kelly adds some very ethereal synthesizer patterns, before a typical 70s symphonic rock section starts. Fugazi is definitely my favourite track on this album. Although it is lesser depressing, most of the time, than the previous songs on the album, it totally fits the song.

Sorry, did I just write 'lesser depressing'. I must have forgotten about the haunting part just before the ending section. Five minutes into the song, the composition is breaking down, until only the synthesizers remain backed up with a minor drum fill. Rothery adds Kelly and Mosley with his guitar riffing around in the background, in a ghostly style, think of the mid sections of the Blind Curve and Bitter Suite songs on the Misplaced Childhood album to get a bit of an impression.

Then there it is, the end section. This section always sounded somewhat medieval to me. The song, and thus also the album, is being ended in a very uplifting way. Though only if you listen to the music, the lyrics are nothing but uplifting, they're more about doom than joy!

I cannot understand why some people dislike this album, compared to its predecessor. It is only an improvement from the musician's perspective. I find the songs to be a bit more coherent and the album itself is also far more coherent too.

Just simply don't compare them too much to one another, there's music here for every progressive music fan to love.

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