blue pain (This Strange Engine - Marillion)

Member Name: pje

Product:	This Strange Engine - Marillion
Date:	13/08/01 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The moving "Estonia" and the sensational "This Strange Engine".

Disadvantages: Packaged in a cheap cardboard sleeve rather than a jewel case.

Having been dropped by EMI after "Afraid of Sunlight", Marillion responded with this tremendous and, in the circumstances, surprisingly confident CD. Their best since the departure of Fish and (dare I say it) very possibly their best ever.

Marillion pretty much went back to the basics on this album, proper songs and plenty of acoustic guitar.

It starts with MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES. A very catchy tune, this is so bright and exuberant that they even bring in a school choir towards the end. What do you mean you don't believe it?


ONE FINE DAY with its wistful lyrics:

~ Listenin' to the pouring rain
~ Waiting for the world to change

is more reflective, but again a memorable singalongable tune,

as is

80 DAYS - a song about being in a band on the road that is actually good. And excuse me, is that a trumpet solo in the middle? It sounds like Penny Lane - very strange!

Apart from the tracks being too long this is downright commercial so far. Time for something deeper then...

Written about a tragedy when a ferry sank in the Baltic in 1994 with the loss of 852 lives, ESTONIA is one of the most moving, uplifting and comforting songs about bereavement I've heard:

~ Feel your heart break, thinking if only if only if only...
~
~ and you would give anything, give up everything,
~ offer your life blood away, for yesterday

Impossibly, it has you (ok, me then) singing and crying at the same time. I want this played at my funeral, and I want to be singing along to it:

~ No-one leaves you when they live in your heart and mind.
~ And no-one dies they just move to the other side.
~ When we're gone... watch the world simply carry on.
~ We live on laughing and in no pain,
~ we'll stay and be happy, with those who have loved us today.


MEMORY OF WATER is a mournful lament which begins with Steve Hoga
rth singing unaccompanied. His voice is Marillion's greatest asset these days. When the rest of the band, Fish-less and with an uncertain future, found this guy they must have thought he was a gift from the gods. I say he is the best rock vocalist in the world today and if you think differently then na-na-na-na-na-na I've got my fingers in my ears na-na-na-na-na-na I'm not listening na-na-na-na-na-na...

AN ACCIDENTAL MAN strides out of the speaker, driven by the engine room of Marillion: Rothery on lead guitar, Pete Trewavas on bass and Ian Mosley on drums. It's another memorable, kick ass rock track.

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE seems rather confused stylistically (a bit too experimental perhaps?) It has a carnival feel and is a little like hearing several bands going past playing different songs.

But never mind all that, let's cut to the crunch...

The album ends with the title track -
which is worth the price of the CD on its own.
I'm not just saying that. It is.

THIS STRANGE ENGINE is a hard track to comprehend at first -
initially I thought it was fifteen minutes of shapeless rambling. But no, it's a mutant leviathan of a track which is, in a word,
sensational.


At one stage Mark Kelly's driving keyboard passage builds
to a climax and then suddenly it stops, and there is












                                             s ilence












then a single chord chimes and leads into a truly poignant acoustic lyrical passage that never fails to bring tears to my eyes.

~ Daddy came out of the navy
~ and took us away to his dirty grey home town
~ And he worked down a coal-mine for National Service
~ so that he could be around
~
~ From the horizon
~ Came home from the Navy to the mine
~ From the horizon to buried
alive...

As this epic, sprawling masterpiece continues, John Helmer's deeply personal lyric then turns shockingly dramatic:

~ A cloud of bees, with no particular aim, and no brain
~ Found the boy, decided that his time had come
~ Came down out of the sky,
~ Stung him in the face. Again and again.
~ Blue pain.
~ Screaming like baptism
~ Intraveinous, Jesus! like being chosen...

Out bursts a Pink Floyd style saxophone solo, followed by a guitar phrase from Rothery straight out of the Dave Gilmour school of singing guitar solos. Next, a chiming heartbeat-like rhythm track appears and pulls us along. The track twists
and turns and builds to a screaming climax musically and lyrically.

A roller-coaster ride which packs a hefty G-force at times.
This is one of the most astonishing tracks of all time ...by anyone. Sadly it's known only to fans of this maligned and neglected band (and perhaps a few stray Radiohead fans out exploring the musical cosmos.)

It's a terrible shame that because this album didn't have the backing of a major record company it didn't get the wide audience it deserved. I would recommend it to absolutely anyone who likes melodic rock music.
______________________________________________ ______

For more information about Marillion, their web-site is at:

                        http://www.marillion.c om/

______________________________________________ ______

Summary: