What does it sound like?:
Marillion return to their debut album for the next in their series of deluxe reissues, which follows the now established ‘Tull format’ with a book sized package containing 4 cds plus a bluray together with an extensive and comprehensive booklet. The original album has been remixed, as have the tracks from their first single, the Market Square Heroes ep, and these are accompanied by an unreleased live show from December 1982. I still like this album a lot overall, although some pieces do feel somewhat ‘of their time’ now. It’s very much the sound of a band in the fledgling phase of their career and still wearing their prog influences proudly on their sleeve. The second disc includes the lengthy Grendel, a song regarded by many as the Holy Grail of the band’s early material, but one which, I have to confess, I never really got – it always sounded like a poor man’s Suppers Ready to me. I much prefer pieces like the title track, Three Boats Down From The Candy and Garden Party myself. I was a little surprised to find the demos included on the previous reissue of the album were missing from this release, meaning disappointingly it’s not a completely exhaustive record of this era of their career.– perhaps there was an issue with the rights, who knows. The bluray has the usual plethora of 5.1 mixes etc, plus the Recital Of The Script performance from 1981 that was previously available on video years ago. Probably the highlight of the package for me is a new ninety minute documentary on the band’s early years, Sackcloth and Greasepaint, which is a very interesting watch indeed, and of course there’s the usual good quality booklet, full of new essays and photographs, to round off the package.
What does it all *mean*?
A very good value package for fans – it won’t win many new converts but then that’s not really the aim of these releases.
Goes well with…
Pondering what the next release in the series will be – presumably another from the Hogarth era, perhaps Seasons End, with the remaining Fish era album, Fugazi, coming next year.
Release Date:
3 April
Might suit people who like…
Fish era Marillion, rock with a prog edge to it.
Received my copy last week and from what i read, appear to be amongst the lucky initial orders from the bands website – looks like most other sources have pushed this back. I guess this is going to be a common theme in the next few months.
A deluxe edition of Fugazi is out in September – original cd remixed (although no unreleased studio material sadly), plus a 1984 live show from Montreal. The bluray has a couple of interesting sounding documentaries on the songs and the making of the album.