AFRAID OF SUNLIGHT

I just recently thought of an interesting statement listening to yet another "Hogarth era Marillion" album being this very Afraid of Sunlight. This Marillion isn't actually neo prog but crossover prog. Well, maybe it has been said a hundred times before, in that case I subscribe it. And in fact it's just about all I have to say about this album.

I listened to it at least five times last week trying to find an interesting song or even moment but I didn't succeed (the only passage that came close was the middle part of final song King but that lasted just a few seconds). Probably I'm still too much waiting for something that sounds remotely like Fish era Marillion and that could be my mistake. These two bands just don't have anything in common and play a 100% different style of music. I remember I heard Seasons End for the first time and I was in shock. The first shock was that Fish was no longer there where he should have been and the other was the poor songwriting. And then Seasons End is one of the bearable albums by "new Marillion"'. This album Afraid of Sunlight shows how bad it has become by now.

It's so disappointing to hear great musicians like Mark Kelly and Steven Rothery let themselves be abused and are forced to play this boring music. And if they play music like this out of free will I'm even more disappointed ! I mean, are they aged or something, ready for the old people's home ? This sounds like music for when they've become 60 years old and have grown tired of playing energetic and inspired prog rock. But they aren't old yet, are they ?

Last 20 years I intuitively stayed away from new Marillion. After Seasons End I knew enough. This isn't my band anymore by any means. The only positive I can say about it is that the music is well executed. I detected two 30 seconds Rothery solos (Out of this World and Afraid of Sunlight) and even these were dull and uninspiring. But because this band knows how to execute I will add a star to my initial idea of giving one to this.