I often find it's rinse and repeat to get something to sink in. When a song is eighteen minutes long then this can be quite trying. On the odd occasion, the first listen sparks something in my head, but that's as rare as hen's teeth.
Take Raider II which clocks in at 23 minutes. Difficult music, you could say that? Being a Steven Wilson song, I normally have little problems, but this behemoth of long songs does not strike my chords no matter how many times I listen to it.
Marillion – Grendal (Script for a Jester's Tear – 1983)
I have been a fan of Marillion for what seems like forever. During the nineties, I started listening to "Misplaced Childhood" in earnest while driving to a car boot sale.
The memory is still with me, and it always triggers my journey to Clitheroe, Lancashire for some reason when I hear the likes of Blind Curve, a particularly intense bleak string of songs strung together to form a lengthy suite.
Grendal has been another "Raider II", but I was determined to break the mould and for me to 'get it'. So many speak its praises so I figured it had to be my mental music block playing games again.
Today I am working from home (yeah it's Sunday I know), so it will be Grendal all day or until something happens.
My dull-witted musical brain has already picked up some sections that sound promising, such as at 14 minutes when the band are trying their best to pull an 'Apocalypse in 9/8', which is a late part in the 'Suppers Ready' suite from Genesis’s, 1972 highly regarded 'Foxtrot'.
While the mentioned part is distinctly superior to Grendals' obvious plagiarism attempt, it still has its merits. Ripping part of Foxtrot off is highly commendable, and it’s suitably different enough for the lawsuits not to start flying.
Marillion – Hotel Hobbies (Clutching at Straws – 1987)
Fish claims 'Clutching at Straws' was the band's finest moment and most accomplished work. While I have listened at length to the album, I have found it patchy at best with a few memorable tracks, apart from the singles released such as "Incommunicado".
"Hotel Hobbies" has some fabulous work from the hugely talented Steve Rothery which brought it to my attention. I am a sucker for guitar solos and this one delivers and also truncates quite abruptly as it's supposed to merge into the next track.
They used to do that a lot, and not just this band.
For me, Fish's last contribution to Marillion doesn't come close to that of "Misplaced Childhood" and that showed in the sales performance. Could it be that there's more to be found on this album?
Perhaps I should put the whole thing on automatic replay.
Marillion – Fugazi (Fugazi – 1984)
Why is it nobody mentions Marillion’s second album? Was it so bad that it’s best forgotten?
I for one have tended to ignore it much like everyone else, yet it pulled at me. Fish was the singer so there must be something good amongst those seven tracks which make up the album.
The title track I have heard several times for one reason or another but just like Grendal it never struck a chord. Had the band been cursed with the dreaded second album plague?
Now I have two songs for my brain to register while on 'standby' at work which is tuning into proper work due to a few niggles within a project upgrade.
Fugazi is not as long as Grendal so if there’s something of interest in there, I would say… oh ten listens will do it.
The one sounds less like typical progressive music, but it's far from the mainstream and am I hearing some folk overtures as well as what sounds like a marching band right at the death.
I do believe something is happening…
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