THIS STRANGE ENGINE

This Strange Engine is almost as good as its predecessor but somehow it didn't manage to sell itself convincingly. At least it's my impression that it doesn't get the praise I would bestow on it.

First of all, except for Hope For The Future, all tracks here are excellent. Again the album is very varied and goes from mild ballads like Estonia, to good (Police-alike?) pop like Accidental Man. It even successfully resurrects their slumbering prog tendencies into the 90's with A man of a thousand faces and the impressive title track.

As I pointed out before, ever since Fish left, Marillion failed to break out into a new audience but instead got stuck inside an audience that for a large part consisted of either Fish-nostalgics or condescending purist for whom Marillion would always remain too straightforward.