Awesome! Great deep bass on these tracks will drive the .1.
Meh, no amount of turd polishing will disguise the fact that this album is the runt in Marilion's litter, even if it was their most commercially successful album. Bloated, meandering, bland, and redolent of so much that was wrong musically with that decade. Despite loving the previous two albums, I hated this record at 14/15 when it came out, and nothing has happened to alter my opinion of it since. I'd much rather hear a Wilson remix of the magnificent Clutching at Straws than this.
I hate Incommunicado. I hate it so much that I can't listen to Clutching at Straws at all.
On the other hand Misplaced Childhood is one of my favorite album of all time!
I can remember finding Misplaced Childhood disappointing when it came out: from what seemed like a very ordinary single in 'Kayleigh' to the sense of hearing the same song over and over again. But while it's the one of the first four that I like least, it's still a great album and possibly, lyrically, the best.
I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.
How tastes differ!!!!!
Personally I would have preferred Fugazi or the debut, however Misplaced Childhood is just fine. It was the album that gave Prog its second wind from a cmercial context!
Never liked Clutching at Straws apart from Sugar Mice & Incommunicado
Last edited by Rufus; 04-30-2017 at 05:59 PM.
This album was a highlight of that period. Before the internet, I had no exposure to a lot of international music, however I did know about Mike Oldfield's work in the 80's. There really was nothing like Kayleigh on MTV at the time it came out. I liked the song, didn't listen to radio and wasn't burned out by it, and bought the CD. Its may have been popular in Europe, but not so much here. However in the late 80s I did go to see Marillion at a local hang called Hammerjacks in Baltimore. Funny that the booking agency booked an opener which was a Foreigner/Journey/Reo Speedwagon wannabe band. The audience hated this band. Marillion came on and it was a different lead singer, Steve Hogarth who was young and had short hair, kind of looked like Peter Gabriel in the early 80s. Apparently, Fish refused to travel and this was just before he split for good. This band was welcome relief from much of the 80s pretentious stuff. Granted that I had not been exposed to any of the other "neo" bands.
I'll watch out for this one... it'll most probably sit on the shelf. But still a keeper nonetheless. Straws would sound even better remixed.
I loved Wilson's work on Raingods With Zippos, and I recently bought his remixes of 2 of my favorite albums Spectral Mornings and Defector. Haven't listened to Defector yet, and although I didn't do a side-by-side listen, I couldn't notice any difference in SM from the original.
Fish was upset at their manager who wanted them to tour, especially in the US. So essentially Fish's desire to not tour led to his departure. I saw Hogarth, just as he joined to support the tour in Fish's stead.
"By 1987 we were over-playing live because the manager was on 20 per cent of the gross. He was making a fantastic amount of money while we were working our asses off. Then I found a bit of paper proposing an American tour. At the end of the day the band would have needed a £14,000 loan from EMI as tour support to do it. That was when I knew that, if I stayed with the band, I'd probably end up a raging alcoholic and be found overdosed and dying in a big house in Oxford with Irish wolfhounds at the bottom of my bed."
I genuinely can't stand it. Heard it plenty back in the day (it was kind of hard to escape in 85/86 amongst my circle of friends), but I've never owned a copy, nor have any interest in doing so. I just find the whole album both meandering and bland, and the lyrics self-pitying, self-indulgent and the happy-clappy conclusion both absurd and contrived (I feel the same way about the end of Brave, too). It's just not for me, and unlike some albums of the period I didn't like then but have warmed to since, Misplaced Childhood still strikes me as supremely dull.
While I would not say that I hate the album, and I find it perfectly listenable. I do think it is probably my least favorite of the Fish era (and I guess maybe of all Marillion cause I tend to prefer H years). I am mainly judging this on how often I actually pull it down and so for me actually I think the first is my favorite.
It's definitely a softer sounding album than Fugazi and Clutching, so I can see it being disappointing to some. And I don't like Made Again (actually, not cause it's happy, I just don't like it musically), so I can sort of see the ending of MC being too happy for some. Still, there IS that question mark in the title Happy Ending.
I Have the 2 CD set from a while ago - don't think I've ever heard the whole thing. I stand corrected - I definitely have never heard the whole thing.
At the time I first heard MC I was going through a breakup of sorts with this girl I knew, so it helped actually in some way. But I haven't revisited it in several years, and haven't really felt much desire to. When I get the urge for some 80s Marillion, I usually spin either Clutching at Straws (which showed the first real development for the band, IMO), or Seasons End. Still, I'm glad I found Misplaced Childhood in that store all those years ago. Good memories, and it was in a lot of ways a stepping stone into more adventurous music in the long run.
And I'll probably pick up this box set when it comes out anyway.
That's the one I've got; the EMI reissues I think, where each one was expanded with a second disc of extras and the CD spines all spelled "Marillion" when you lined them up in order on a shelf. Kinda cool.
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