THE EMI SINGLES COLLECTION

Now owning something like 15 music DVD's, this one is actually among the most frequently viewed. (Perhaps Pink Floyd's P.U.L.S.E. or Blackmore's Night double-DVD have been more times in my player since I have owned them longer and they have longer contents, but speaking of MUSIC VIDEOS, I certainly have enjoyed this one more than the DVD's by David Bowie or Peter Gabriel, not to mention the others I have.)

Fish-era Marillion covers quite exactly 50% of this 90-minute set. Of course we are dealing with a lot of nostalgia here, but some of the videos are relly quite good too. 'He Knows You Know' is Marillion's cousin to Bowie's 'Ashes To Ashes' (junkies, creeping madness, etc) and the cinematic video is well directed. 'Garden Party' is an amusing, tongue-in-cheek picture of an upper class garden party where the band members, acting as childish boys, go playing their little tricks. 'Kayleigh' deals melancholically with the man (Fish) and the woman after their relationship is over. The video features also the uniformed boy from the Misplaced Childhood album cover. One of the weakest videos is 'Heart of Lothian' in which Fish wanders thru the city and arrives late into the gig; the video attempts to be humorous and has no logical connection to the song itself. 'Sugar Mice' is one of the best videos: Fish plays very heartachingly the shabby divorced man lulling in self pity. 'Warm Wet Circles' video is based on Marillion's concert on Loreley.

The Hogarth-era is no (well, not much...) weaker in terms of music videos. The tracks of course include some of the band's most commercial and weakest pop songs such as 'Cover My Eyes' and 'No One Can'. 'Easter' is a nice one, except for the way Hogarth gestures sentimentally. The videos around those two first Fishless albums are in general quite polished and tidy but somehow too middle-of-the-road stuff. OK, the doppelgänger in 'Uninvited Guest' is a good idea but I dislike the song too much.

When I bought this DVD, I hesitated between this and the "Brave" movie. Of course I could have bought them both, but maybe I still can buy the latter one. I read some negative-ish reviews of the Brave film here in PA, but att least the three songs included in this compilation are among the highlights, both visually and musically (Brave has been one of my favourite albums years back). 'The Great Escape' is deeply moving! The first time I watched it I had to watch it again immediately. BTW the girl in the head role looked familiar but the googling proved she's almost unknown. However she acts very well here, maybe in the whole Brave movie too... All in all, very recommendable DVD to anyone who likes Marillion even for a little.