Marillion Album Poll: This Strange Engine (1997)

Tracklisting:

1. Man Of A Thousand Faces (7:33)
2. One Fine Day (5:32)
3. 80 Days (5:00)
4. Estonia (7:57)
5. Memory Of Water (3:01)
6. An Accidental Man (6:12)
7. Hope For The Future (5:11)
8. This Strange Engine (15:34)

Personnel:

Steve Hogarth - vocals
Steve Rothery - guitars
Mark Kelly - keyboards
Pete Trewavas - bass
Ian Mosley - drums

Additional personnel:

Charlton & Newbottle School Choir – choir (on "Man of a Thousand Faces”)
Tim Perkins – balalaika (on "Estonia”)
Phil Todd – saxophone (on "This Strange Engine”)
Paul Savage – trumpet (on "Hope for the Future”)

It's hard to imagine a world without Marillion. From their perilous perch at the outskirts of the territory that connected progressive rock with more accessible mainstream rock, they have subtly influenced musicians in countless backgrounds, and inspired the careers of many of our most essential bands. If you ask most of today's prog giants who their influences have been, most of them will list these guys prominently on their list.

For many of us, it was even harder to imagine Marillion without Fish, the poetic and charismatic vocalist and songwriter who led the group through many years and many essential albums, notably Misplaced Childhood and Clutching at Straws. When he left the band to pursue new avenues for lyrical delivery, many of us felt that the band's best days were over.

But you know, those of us who follow progrock really ought to know better. After all, we've watched King Crimson travel through three (some would say four) completely distinct periods, and each of them is cherished by us; we've seen Genesis travel from crucial prog to abysmal radio fodder and slightly back again; we've seen Jethro Tull move through seemingly unlimited shades of their sound, none of them dispensable. So why not Marillion? Why should the end of the Fish era signal the end of the band?

Well, it didn't. Marillion is, in fact, a completely different entity from the days of Childhood, though most of their members haven't changed. The crucial post of vocalist was filled by Fish himself, who oversaw the audition process, and the man he found, Steve Hogarth, has been responsible for one of the brightest stars on the modern rock scene.

Modern is a good word to describe the sound on This Strange Engine, a bright and serious work with some soaringly high moments and very few disappointing ones. The first track, "Man of a Thousand Faces", might just go down as one of the band's best songs ever - it's lyrics are up to the stratospheric standards the band has set for themselves, and the instrumentation is lush and dense, allowing Hogarth's vocal melody to fill rooms. Also notable is "Memory of Water", a hypnotic bit with some captivating vocal lines.

The only real disappointment here is the slightly cliched "Estonia", but even this song is not without its merits. Hogarth has a gift for taking any set of words, no matter how hackneyed or corny, and making them sound poetic and deadly serious; he pulls this off on "80 Days", a song about how hard it is to be a touring musician. (I don't exactly feel sorry for you, Steve - I'd love to know that my creative output has changed the lives of tens of thousands.)

It's an incredible feeling, when taking the headphones off after completing Engine, to realize that this band has been doing this for as long as they have; and it's a tremendous testament to their ongoing talent when you realize that their music feels as if they're just getting started.

[Article taken from Sea Of Tranquility]

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I’ll go ahead and rate This Strange Engine as ‘a solid effort’. I’ve always enjoyed this album, but I don’t put it in the same league as what has come before or after it. Man Of A Thousand Faces, Estonia, 80 Days, and the title track are favorites. Again, like Afraid Of Sunlight, This Strange Engine finds Rothery being pushed back again, which I don’t mind, but his solos in the title track are nothing short of exquisite. Any fans of this album here?

 

This is the album where I lost interest in Marillion. Other than the so-called cliched Estonia, I can't sit through these songs. A friend of mine once said, if I wanted to hear Radiohead I'll play their stuff, not this wannabe.
Since I loathe Radiohead, the statement resonated with me.

I've dabbled into their albums since and I usually find one track I can get into, but I can't be bothered to distill the last 20 years of their output into one serviceable (for me) collection.

 

A solid effort. This is the last Marillion album I really liked until "Marbles". The only track I usually skip is "Hope for the Future".

I don't hear any comparison to Radiohead on TSE, but the next album, "Radiation" certainly sounds like the band were trying to incorporate modern influences.

 

THIS is the album that put them back on the rails in my opinion. I love the natural timbre of this album and the back t basics acoustic approach.

To this point, Hogarth never sounded better as he did on this album. It's one of my favorites. I love the way he sings on this record. It just seems so natural and effortless.

Skipped the previous US tour due to the previous two albums but there was no way I was going to miss this tour and I was not disappointed. It was even better live. I loved the direction they were heading in too.

Have to admit I don't pull out Tales From The Engine Room much though.

 

Really good album. I used to play this a lot. The sound on this album as already mentioned is reallly good and H sounds great. The Man of 1,000 Faces extended version is really good. I bought the cd single as a import before I had the album.

 

I find this one oddly inconsistent, with some songs right up there with my favorites, and others among their very weakest. My favorite here is the gloriously atmospheric "Estonia" (so I disagree with the reviewer above), and the first two tracks are pretty solid, exploring different styles (kind of REM-ish folk-pop with "Man of a Thousand Faces" and a hint of blues on "One Fine Day") while still sounding comfortably like Marillion. On the other hand, I find both "80 Days" and "Hope for the Future" almost unlistenable--the latter in particular sounds like an unintentional self-parody to me. The epic title track seems to be a fan favorite, and I share the love for much of it, but it has a climax wherein H gets so strained and screechy that it completely ruins the listening experience for me (I know he does at some point on almost every album, but I recall this case being worse than usual).

In some ways, this is the album that begins their abandonment of the more explicitly neo-proggy sound of their previous albums. I think some of what came later was brilliant, and others just kind of meandering. Overall, though, I have to give them credit for remaking themselves in a way that feels pretty organic (in the sense that they didn't just plug into a trendy, pre-existing sound, but synthesized a number of different influences in a pretty unique way).

 

I agree with NorthNY Mark that This Strange Engine is quite inconsistent, but each album from This Strange Engine up to Anoraknophobia aren’t as strong as what has come before or after, although I’m coming around to Marillion.com much more these days, especially for the fabulous Interior Lulu, which is one of my favorite Marillion pieces.

 

It's an album I assume I like a lot but also one that I rarely play.

Guess that makes it a solid effort.

 

He sounds great on that track, doesn't he? It seems like he's coming from a very organic place.

 

I love this album!!

 

I don't have this album. Never been a fan of Hogarth's vocals, so post-Fish Marillion is not really my cuppa. I do have and enjoy the remix CD Tales From The Engine Room (fewer vocals, obvs).

--Geoff