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Marillion - Marbles By The Sea  CD (album) cover

MARBLES BY THE SEA

Marillion

Neo-Prog


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Gatot
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars You know that I have reviewed a lot of albums as well as fans club albums by Marillion at this wonderful site. Marillion was my hero in early 80s and I love all albums under Fish era plus some albums with Hogarth. While in the 80s when I expected a new album by the band I was so sure they would make a great album from "Fugazi" , "Misplaced", "Clutching" but under Hogarth era the band direction was not clear and the music became grey. In some attempts they tried to give away from neo prog but it turned out their music was something like Radiohead. Their last album "Somewhere Else" was going nowhere and I had lost patient listening to the album in its entirety. It's a waste of time listening to their latest album. But their previous album "Marbles" (2004) was excellent even though they did not fulfill the promise to the fans thay should give a 120 minutes but they only gave me 100 minutes. I purchased the expensive pre-order version and my name was printed there in the booklet.

The band's Marbles tour on DVD "Marbles On The Road" did not satisfy me to the fullest. Especially there was no "Drilling Holes" performed on stage. But with "Marbles By The Sea" I can get this song.

The show starts with a a spacey touch in intro part, drum-loop and a bit of percussion sound with mellow keyboard "The Invisible Man" enters my mind. The first minute reminds me strongly to the intro part of "Assassing" the band's second album. But if combined with the keyboard sound this first minute reminds me to the nuances of intro part of Fish's "What Colour is God" of Sunsets on Empire album. Am sure this is purely a coincidence not an intention. Fortunately when Hogarth's vocal slowly enter all of that association with other compositions are gone. I have to admire that this track is terrific in this live version, well structured with a mixture of great sounds. Steve's guitar sound is really excellent. I guess he played it with his heart as the sound he produced so damn smooth. Mark's keyboard sound is rich and sets the whole tone of the track. Hogarth sings beautifully.

Track 2 "Marbles I" is a pure easy listening pop music. Track 3 "Genie" is nothing than a pop music and a little bit boring on its melody part. "Fantastic Place" is a nice track. "The Only Unforgivable Thing" is very good. It still mellow, but minute 4 the interlude is terrific, this segment produces nice melody with touchy guitar fill. "Don't Hurt Yourself" has better melody. I like the acoustic guitar intro of this track. The music flows nicely and good melody when hogarth sings "Don't Heart Yourself .". Really cool. I also like the guitar sound produced here, it's a kind of Hawaiian style. Congrats Steve!

The real joy of listening to this live album is when "Drilling Holes" is being played excellently. I cannot imagine how this live version is almost perfectly the same with the studio track - including the clavinet work in the middle of the track, during the break. It's really a thread having this song featured in live version. The other two masterpiece tracks "Neverland"and "Ocean Cloud" are also played brilliantly.

Well, if you enjoy Marbles studio album, I bet you would love to have this live version. It's highly recommended. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Report this review (#158457)
Posted Sunday, January 13, 2008 | Review Permalink
4 stars There have to be some very good reasons for rating a live version of a previously released studio album with four stars, i.e. labelling it as "essential prog." I hope that this review?my first for ProgArchives?will make these reasons clear. I should begin by saying that the studio release is my favourite Marillion album, Fish-era included, and one of my favourite albums of all time. This live version has been one of the most frequent fliers on my sound system since I purchased it as a download from Racket Records last month (a very nice service, by the way, and one that I hope see an increasing number of record labels providing). That said, personal feelings are not a sufficient basis for a review. So...

There are two things I listen for in any live album: the excellence of the music itself just as with a studio album, and the energy that is unique to a live performance. In terms of the former, though my standards are high, I tend not to expect quite as much as I would from a studio album as a live recording, particularly a recording of a specified concert, is a one- take-only affair. That said, 'Marbles by the Sea' goes well beyond my expectations. The music is richly layered and masterfully performed?on a par with the original release and in some cases quite possibly better. Beautiful music played by artists in full command of their art.

Also worth noting is that, unlike the single disc 'Marbles Live,' this double album includes all songs from the original release. The only difference is that the epic "Ocean Cloud," which on the original appears on disc one, is the song with which the performance concludes. The notes on the label's website explain: "the band were originally unsure if they could even play 'Ocean Cloud' live?when it was evident they could, they decided to leave it out of the main set and use it as a 'surprise' encore." The choice was a good one and, following up on a superb rendition of "Neverland," both a crowd and a band favourite, the effect of the song is even more impressive than on the studio release.

Regarding the energy that one looks for in a live recording, that is where this album excels. Marillion is a very good live band in terms of both performance and audience rapport. I am particularly struck by the opening song, "Invisible Man," in which the audience breaks into spontaneous applause about two thirds of the way through (those of you familiar with the studio version can probably intuit where and why). From beginning to end, this performance keeps both the original audience and the contemporary listener engaged. The inclusion of a judicious amount of audience banter enhances the live feeling of this album without seeming intrusive or self-indulgent. At the conclusion of "Neverland," Hogarth says to the applauding audience, "This doesn't happen very often in life." He is right. The only regret that this album evokes is that I was not at the concert.

Report this review (#267307)
Posted Sunday, February 21, 2010 | Review Permalink
Warthur
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars The first of three live albums from the 2005 Marillion weekend, Marbles By the Sea (as you can guess from the title) chronicles the live performance of the complete Marbles album - 2CD version obviously - which took place on the Friday night of that event. The band do a pretty decent job of taking the complete album onto the stage, with the mild running order tweak of running Ocean Cloud to the end as an encore - apparently because they weren't sure they could pull it off live and didn't want a botched song slap in the middle of the set! (As it turns out, they play it wonderfully). One for the hardcore Marbles fans, maybe, but isn't that most Marillion fans these days?
Report this review (#680938)
Posted Saturday, March 24, 2012 | Review Permalink

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