SOMEWHERE ELSE

If this album was released a few years before maybe the rate would be higher. After their Marble-ous last record I think we all were expecting something at least near that standard. Unfortunately it wasn't the case. This is way far from the quality and emotion created in albums such as BRAVE, AFRAID OF SUNLIGHT or MARBLES. Is not exactly a bad album, and maybe with the years could grow in me as it happened with BRAVE that lasted some time for me to digest it completely and later on became one of my favorites, but to be honest, I really doubt it.

One of the elements I'm missing is the progressiveness. Of course many of the Marillion 'H' era detractors would say that they already lost that part before, but not for me. I accept that they took a different route since H steered the band having more pop and alternative ingredients but NEVER forgetting their Progressive side. In this last effort they didn't totally forget it but is less preponderant. It seems they wanted to take a similar direction that they did with MARBLES but I think they took as reference the weaker parts of that album (which are little), using the less complex and lighter (poppier) songs as example. Also I hear I slight approach to the RADIATION/THIS STRANGE ENGINE era that could be the worst thing to do in the opinion of many persons, but for me wouldn't be that bad since I enjoyed those albums, and if they had achieved at least the originality of some songs in those recordings.

It's very hard for me to rate an album like this that causes me opposite feelings. In one hand I find enjoyable moments in some songs and a couple of them being VERY good tracks, I think would be a bit unfair to rate it too low. If it was done by other band, for sure I would give it a good rating, but that's exactly the problem; so in the other hand, I feel they could do something superior knowing what this guys are capable of. At the end I think a 3 star would be the closest to the reality, being (just a little) complacent.

After all that I have said, I need to mention that I really enjoyed songs like "The Other Half", a good opener that made me think the album was going to take a different direction than the one actually taken, "Somewhere Else" is by far the best on the CD with a deep dark emotional feeling, and "The Wound", a great track with a good beat at the beginning and changing mood to an atmospheric one. These last 2 songs are the only ones that could compete with a MARBLES song. There are some other tracks not as good as but still decent like "See It Like a Baby", "Thankyou Whoever You Are" and "No Such Thing". The rest are good songs but are the kind that you forget once the album finishes.

The only thing I have left to say is that, although being a nice album, I feel it like one of their weakest efforts in the last few years.

Viva el Prog!

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