gtenti@water.UUCP (G. Tenti) (07/25/85)
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 (I believe their third album). Not only is the instrumental complex, subtle, and simply wonderful, but the vocals are so much like Peter Gabriel himself singing that I begin to wonder if the lead vocalist, FISH, is indeed a pseudonym for Peter. The album, called Misplaced Child, is a story book album structured like many an old Yes album (i.e. many tracks are divided in to sub-parts). A friend of mine who recommended I get this album has now listened to it roughly thirty times and he still finds it as fantastic if not better than the first time he listened to it. As for myself, I've listened to it only three times, but even on the first listening I was dumbfounded by their improvement over their previous album. I recommend anyone who liked old Genesis and perhaps those who liked Yes to get it or at least to perk up if you hear their name mentioned on the radio and judge for yourself.
rosen@ucbvax.ARPA (Rob Rosen) (07/29/85)
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 > ... Uh. I have heard this comparison before, specifically, when Marillion came out with their first LP a couple years ago. I should have listened to my "little voice" that told me to stay away from these guys after I saw the excerpts from various magazines that served as advertisements for the first Marillion single (I forgot the name of it); they were something like "Well, Marillion sounds a lot like Genesis, only "cleaner." You can make the comparison to Genesis until the cows come home, but..." ...etc. I find it hard to believe that any reviewer would actually consider a band that emulates another band as being worthy of more than a casual examination. 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." What made pre '77 Genesis great was the sense of magic in the music that no other band on the face of the earth could ever emulate - no one, not even Tony Banks, knew why or how that magic came about but all agreed that it was present (I am of the opinion that it departed after Steve left, although many believe that it departed after Peter left). The magic was undefinable and very wonderful; Marillion just doesn't have it -- an Emulator, PPG Wave II and Prophet 10 won't sound half as good as a simple Hammond/Mellotron configuration if one doesn't know how to utilise his tools and create with them as an artist would use a palette to paint a landscape. I doubt that anything will be a substitute for "Firth of Fifth" or "The Cinema Show" or "Supper's Ready" -- even now these songs hold as much magic for me as they did six years ago when I first heard them as a high school sophomore. -- "Yes, that is to say no understanding" --Rob Rosen ...ucbvax!rosen
gtenti@water.UUCP (G. Tenti) (07/30/85)
> 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