MISPLACED CHILDHOOD

Review # 86. Misplaced Childhood was released in 1985 and it is the band's most commercially successful album by far. It included the hit singles 'Kayleigh' (No.2 at the UK singles charts) and 'Lavender' (No.5). It is a concept album and the lyrics (written by Fish) are about his lost youth, his first love, alcohol and drug abuse among other things. The album had a huge promotion from EMI and it climbed at No.1 in the UK album charts becoming a huge success. The problem that Marillion had (in my opinion), was that they were heavily promoted by 'Kerrang' magazine in those years. But 'Kerrang' was a Heavy Metal magazine. So, many people (and me among them) learned about Marillion from the song 'Kayleigh' and when they were reading about Marillion in this magazine they thought 'ah that's another pop-metal band'. What a big mistake... Well, I believe that Kayleigh was a song written only to become a hit and nothing else. But the rest of the record is simply wonderful. It is an album that I bought back in the 80's and I still listen to it. I'm sure that all of you who are familiar with Marillion's early works knows very well what I'm talking about here. 5 Stars