MARILLION: Ten of the Best

[saucyjackstl]

I can't even pick ten I like -- never been a fan.
I've tried, but I just don't get this band.

I fully understand that. Don't know the style of music you like but their catalog has a couple of waves. I find I like some (for me the Misplaced Childhood and Clutching at Straws) and am ho-hum on others (Happiness).

[Dodie]

I love Marillion, I'm not partisan about line-ups, nor blind to the rambling faults of some of their post-Marbles albums (for what little its worth, Sounds That Can't Be Made is much more to my liking than Somewhere Else, Happiness is the Road or the vastly over-rated FEAR - though all of those patchier albums have songs that work better live).

I can't pick only 10, so I'm not playing by the rules, but my favourites from almost every album in chronological order, are:
1) Garden Party
2) Lords Of The Backstage - Blind Curve - Childhood's End (i.e. most of Misplaced Childhood part 2; I love the transition into 'White Feather', but I think the song itself is a bit naff)
3) Hotel Hobbies - That Time Of The Night (though I could've picked 3 or 4 songs from Clutching At Straws - easily the best Fish-era album, and the only one that I still listen to with undiminished admiration)
4) King Of Sunset Town
5) Waiting To Happen (I love a lot of Holidays In Eden - for me, their most under-rated album)
6) Runaway (I assume that not all of Brave is allowed)
7) Gazpacho (Afraid Of Sunlight took me a while, but nowadays I think of it as one of the three joint-best Marillion albums, along with Brave and Marbles)
8) One Fine Day (This Strange Engine is my favourite album outside the three joint-best, maybe about equal with Clutching At Straws)
9) Under The Sun
10) A Legacy
11) Quartz
12) Angelina (I also like the Steven Wilson mix that was a B side of 'Don't Hurt Yourself')
13) Faith (though I prefer the live version that was the B side of 'You're gone' to the studio version on Somewhere Else)
14) The Sky Above The Rain (though I think the final section lets down an otherwise perfectly beautiful and deeply moving song, I prefer it by a whisker to 'Gaza')

Albums not represented happen to be those that I don't really like that much, or which are ok but contain no tracks I'd take to my Marillion-only desert island.

Just to cheat even further, I'll add this appendix:
B side, Fish era: 'Cinderella Search'
B side, H era: 'The Collection'
Non-album track: 'Sympathy'
Live version, Fish era: 'Slainte Mhath' from Clutching At Straws boxed set
Live version, H ear: 'The Answering Machine' from Anorak In The UK (but could've picked loads, not least 'Go' from All One Tonight)
Live cover version: 'Fake Plastic Trees' from Unplugged At The Walls


OK, that's enough cheating now.

[Morphy65]

Sorry I'm a bit late to the neo-prog rumble but I saw Marillion, IQ, Pallas and Pendragon a number of times back in 83/84/85 when they were all part of the "prog revival" in the UK. I think it is unfair to say that one was following or copying the other, they were just all trying to keep the flag flying for the Genesis/Yes style of progressive rock.
Marillion were by far the most successful - they were playing decent sized theatres on the Script tour whilst the others were playing shitty clubs and student union bars (in fact the first time I saw Pendragon was supporting Marillion at the Leicester De Montfort Hall when they had their first proper album, The Jewel, out - it might have been the Fugazi tour?). Fish was a brilliant frontman and they put on a great show.
The real turning point was when Kayleigh was a big hit and they became known to the wider public whereas the other bands were definitely less commercial. That was where I got off the bus (a case of the "MY BAND has become known to other people and had hits so I cannot like them anymore" teenage syndrome ) so I haven't really heard much H stuff other than trying Brave which I found boring, sorry!

[Score2112]

Very good list. I'd possibly put The Other Half on my list too - that's another one with a sort of underrated little guitar solo, and a pretty weird but cool one at that.

Third on The Other Half, which was also on my list... wonderful tune. Also like the inclusion of Interior Lulu, .com is one of my favorite Marillion records (any era), nearly top to bottom.

[ytserush]

10?

Aside from Brave, half of Afraid Of Sunlight, Less Is More and Interior Lulu, I love it all.