FUGAZI

Fugazi used to be my least favourite of the Fish-era Marillion studio albums, but over the years it's grown and grown and grown on me. It's an odd album, that's for sure - kicking off with two of the band's more accessible tracks in the form of the hard rocking Assassing and the darkly comical Punch and Judy (a reminder that sometimes breaking up isn't the worst thing that can happen to a relationship), after a fairly approachable opening the album plunges into some of the bands more murky and less accessible material from Jigsaw onwards.

Fish's lyrics reach a new level of complexity and poetry this time around. Unkind persons might accuse him of eating a thesaurus, though it's more likely due to the influence of Peter Hammill, who'd befriended the band whilst they were touring together; certainly, there's a touch of Hammill in Fish's delivery of these emotionally raw pieces. (That said, the lyrics to at least one song - She Chameleon - had actually been written well before the recording of Script for a Jester's Tear, but the song was pulled from the band's set list so that the tune could be thoroughly reworked.)

New addition to the team Ian Mosley proves that he's both got the technical chops to take the band's music to the next level on the one hand, but on the other hand he also has the ability to show restraint which was Mick Pointer's saving grace as a drummer, never showboating or intruding on parts of the songs which demand either low-key drumming or no percussion at all. Steve Rothery's guitar work, which was such a highlight of the previous album, is still at its usual high standards, and Mark Kelly has some truly fine moments on keyboards.

On the whole, the album is an exceptional achievement with plenty in the way of hidden depths, which also blazed a trail for neo-prog as a distinct style in itself as opposed to a style dependent wholly on its influences. There is, quite simply, nothing in earlier progressive or mainstream rock music to compare it to.