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From: gtenti@water.UUCP (G. Tenti)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: New album by Marillion
Message-ID: <741@water.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Jul-85 10:32:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: water.741
Posted: Tue Jul 30 10:32:20 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 31-Jul-85 04:40:44 EDT
References: <727@water.UUCP> <9422@ucbvax.ARPA>
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Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
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> In article <727@water.UUCP> gtenti@water.UUCP (G. Tenti) writes:
> >This message is specifically for all those who believe Genesis died
> >when Peter Gabriel left.
> >
> >I recently bought the most recent release by a group called Marillion
> >
> 
> My reservations proved correct after having made the purchase of "A Jester's
> Tear (or whatever the album title was)."  The music was droll, uninteresting,
> uninspired, uninventive, and just plain "un."  

Obviously you didn't read the rest of my brief review.  I heard their first
two albums and I agree with you that they were poor at best.  Some of this
blame, however, I would give to the producer and engineers of these albums 
and the rest to a lack of maturity on the part of the band.  Marillion's
latest album, Misplaced Childhood, is incomparable to the previous two.

My opening line of a comparison to Genesis was only intended as a grabber.
For anyone who enjoyed old Genesis before, you should appreciate this album for
its incredibly visual lyrics (some of the best poetry I've ever read), for
its combiniation of complex and simple arrangements both which project
(for me anyway) the exact mood to fit the accompanying lyrics, and for
the "oneness" of the album. (I can't really think of a better way to 
describe it - Many musical themes constantly re-occur, occasionally as
a solo, occasionally as a background melody.  The lyrics are all intertwined
from beginning to end, constantly referring to the general theme of the
album about a young man who yearns for his "misplaced childhood", but in
the end realises that, in a sense, childhood never ends if you live your
own life in the present and try not to cling to the past.  (that may sound
corny but I'm not the poet that Fish is).

In fact this theme is present in all three albums but never to clearly
and emotionally expressed as in this last album.  From one of the first
songs, Kayleigh, he expresses his yearning for the past.

	"Kayleigh, I'm still trying to write that love song
         Kayleigh, it's more important to me, now that you're gone
         It'll prove to me that we were right
         Or it'll prove that I was wrong."

Kayleigh then flows into a light melody, Lavender, accompanied by a piano
that brings forth images of light rain.
  
 	"I was walking in the park, dreaming of a spark
         When I heard the sprinklers whisper, shimmer
         In a haze of summer lawns.
         Then I heard the children singing,
         They were singing a song for you,
         They were singing my song for you, 
 	 The one I wanted to write for you"

From this simple melody, the album ebbs into the five part song, Bitter Suite.
The first part sets a dismal atmosphere of loneliness all presented with
spoken lyrics over a synthesised background and ending with:
 
	"While I stand by the phone, like an expectant father
	 Your carnation will rot in a vase"

This is immediately followed by:
  
	"A train sits in a siding,
         The driver guzzles another can of lager,
 	 To wash away the memory of a Friday night down at the club."

As the story progresses, it becomes apparent that the poet is referring to
his own past.

  	"I was in Toronto when Mylo went down
         And we talked and we cried on the phone
 	 I never felt so alone, he was the first of our own.
         Some of us go down in a blaze of obscurity
	 Some of us go down in a haze of publicity
         The price of infamy, the edge of insanity.

         Another Holiday Inn, another temporary home,
         Another interviewer threatened me with a microphone
         'Talk to me, won't you tell me your story'."

Approaching the end of the album the poet faces the crux of his problem.

        "There's a presence here.
 	 A child, my child
         My childhood, my misplaced childhood
         Give it back to me.
         Please, give it back to me."

This part of the album is incredibly powerful in it's silence.  The title
of the arrangement, Perimeter Walk, presents the image of a man on the
edge of insanity, and the lyrics spoken are in the tone of a solitary
voice in the poets own mind.

As the album closes the poet sees himself as child again, reborn with
the realization that "She has got to live her own life, And you have to
go on with yours". With a beautiful acoustic guitar plucked lightly in
the background he continues:

	"Hey you, you've survived,
         Now you've arrived.
	 To find the answers to your problems
         Were always in your own eyes."

To conclude this extended play version of my earlier critique, I don't expect
Marillion's album, Misplaced Childhood, to replace Firth of Forth, or 
Cinema Show (In fact one of my favorite albums of all time is Selling England
by the Pound). However, for anyone who can appreciate the subtleties, 
complexities, and simplicities of old Genesis, Marillion's latest album will
definitely be a welcome addition to a record collection.

				"And the man in the mirror had sad eyes"
							-Marillion
---
Fozzie