Marillion...Clutching At Straws turns 30

+1

 

Well there's plenty to like, post -Fish. Season's End (my favourite Marillion record) and Hoildays In Eden are probably the most accessible, but if you're prepared to put in the time, they're all worth a listen.

 

I agree completely.
There's gold in them thar hills.

 

Actually they require more listening efforts (repetition) from my part than the first 3 albums but all rewarding at the end.

 

I’ve been listening to a lot of Marillion and Fish albums lately. I have a love/hate relationship with Marillion and Fish. Their earliest stuff is good but at times feels so derivative of Gabriel-era Genesis that I end up simply putting on Gabriel-era Genesis. Then, just as they were hitting their stride musically and lyrically, forging their own identity, they choose their manager over Fish and replace him with Hogarth.

I’ve really tried to get into the Hogarth era. I think that the band certainly grew musically after Fish left but it’s all undone by Hogarth, who has to be the most generic rock vocalist I’ve ever heard. Every time I try a Hogarth era record, I keep wondering why they left the demo guide vocals on the finished tracks. There’s something about him that completely disconnects from me. I’d actually prefer those albums if it were just the instrumentals. His lyrics are also a massive step down from Fish’s.

Meanwhile, Fish’s solo stuff is terribly hit and miss. He always collaborates with good musicians but rarely does it feel as effortlessly excellent as his Marillion material. His best solo stuff is terrific, but sometimes I feel like I need to make my own compilations to get a consistently good record all the way through.

So, with all of that being said, let me return to Clutching at Straws. I think part of what frustrates me about the rest of the Marillion and Fish material is that CaS feels like such a complete masterpiece from beginning to end that I lament how the pieces never fit into place for either Marillion or Fish in the same way again. The album has moments that are reminiscent of Genesis, Pink Floyd, and The Who, and yet it never feels derivative as Script and Fugazi sometimes did. The band’s playing is absolutely top notch, the best of their career IMO, and the same goes for Fish’s vocals and lyrics. The whole thing feels so nakedly confessional that it’s on par with Blood on the Tracks and Plastic Ono Band for me in terms of emotional content. Fish’s lyricism gelled perfectly on this record, never feeling mawkish as it did on some of Misplaced Childhood, nor overly wordy as it does on some of his lesser solo stuff. There are some truly beautiful and also devastating turns of phrase on the album, and the portrait he paints of himself is truly dire but so brave.

Listening to the music on Season’s End, and the demo songs on the CaS bonus disc for what would have been the follow up to CaS, I truly lament the Fish/Marillion split, because I think had they remained together (but reduced their touring) that CaS would have been a signpost for a string of killer albums that would have joined the rock canon as genuine classics. Instead what we got are a lot of scattered pieces that never add up to a satisfying whole, save for CaS itself which stands alone in the catalogs of either Marillion or Fish.

 

You completely nail it here. Marillion were always musically brilliant and have got better but the melody and song craft is lacking on the later releases I have heard. Fish had the “cut” in the lyric and has still done so at times solo but is let down musically in those moments.

 

Marillion should be applauded for their longevity.They have a formula and way of working that just goes on and on..They have a fanbase big enough to enable them to indefinitely tour and release their own albums once every few years.It must be a lovely life for them.They are all very talented musicians.Hogarth is a great front man and singer.Yes his songs can lack a catchy hook and be a bit ponderous and pretentious at times .And yes,i'm not a great fan of the over blown nod-to-Pink-Floyd theatricals,but i always immensely enjoy their live concerts.Its an event where you feel part of an exclusive club.Their fans are very loyal and devoted.But to be fair i only listening to their new albums so i can enjoy the concerts fully.

 

CAS is an almost masterpiece in my opinion. Flawed because of the inclusion of 'Incommunicado'.

 

Yep and your avatar is a very good one. Marillion needs to get some of that accessibility back.

 

Flawed only by the exclusion of ‘Tux On’ lol. I like Incommunicado. It provides some much needed release for the tension rhe rest of the music provides and is an excellent antidote to the heaviness of rhe preceding track.

 

Which is one reason why the vinyl version is better as it wasn’t on the original vinyl release.

 

It's still in there, but I thought they went a little too far out on FEAR. The longer tracks didn't hang together as well as something like Ocean Cloud or Interior Lulu. For the Hogarth era, I think they seem to do best with 4:00-7:00 track lengths (for the most part).

 

Sometimes I get the feeling that one Marillion criteria for a great track is being over 8 minutes!
They are frequently guilty of excessive noodling about and bolting instrumental bits together to make a song in a clumsy fashion IMO.
Hogarth seems to have a penchant for a whispering slurry vocal a lot recently. It worked on Marbles stuff, Invisible Man for example which I find a stunning piece of work; Fantastic Place is another great track from Marbles.
Afterwards with Somewhere Else they suffered with choruses that pretty much consisted of the same line repeated 4-5 times as a remember.
I firmly believe they are better with a producer like Dave Meegan to condense their ideas better.
I wasn’t really into STCBM that much and thought F.E.A.R. was a step in the right direction, although to be fair to it O think I need to give it more listens than I have so far...

 

I’ve realised that I’ve gone off thread. Sorry OP!
CAS is brilliant and I hope for a deluxe vinyl edition this year. Not one bad track for me and their most consistent album. None of the tracks beat Fugazi ( the track) for me, which is my favourite Fish era track but there’s not one duffer on CAS whereas Fugazi the album has She Chameleon as a negative.

 

I love Fugazi but White Russian is up there with it.

 

Where's the 'unlike' button

I love She Chameleon

--Geoff

 

Love the dramatic of Fugazi from start to finish. My favorite album from the Fish era.

 

Brave Deluxe Edition coming out soon

Brave

 

The only Marillion record that completely blew me away...and I tried with several others but never found what I did with 'Clutching At Straws'. But with Marillion I've always suspected that whichever album you owned first (and truly heard) by this band is the one you're going to love the most: all others will fall behind your introduction. Having a mother who eventually died from her alcoholism only added to the albums impact and poignancy for me...a profound listen and one I remember being deeply surprised by.

 

That bonus disc depresses the hell out of me. The next album would have even been better if it happened based on what Seasons End and A Vigil In A Wilderness of Mirrors, which are favorites of mine.

For me, the low points of Hogarth Marillion and solo Fish studio work strangely coincide between 1993 and 1995. Don't know what happened, but that was the low point for me as a fan of both.

 

First inclination is not to bother but maybe Steven Wilson's involvement will make it more palatable. Or maybe his involvement won't.

 

I was about to say that I like it "in spite of the 80's production and stabs at pop songs," but on second thought it's BECAUSE of those that it's the one Marillion album I come back to on even an occasional basis.

There's something about the lush digital chorus and delay sounds and some great melodic ideas (That Time of the Night, Torch Song, Warm Wet Circles,
Slàinte Mhath) that's more appealing to me now than the overt prog forefathers tributes of the earliest records and the AOR stylings of the post-Fish period.

I also saw the band live on their tour for the album in Aberdeen, Scotland, which was quite the blast, so I have good associations with that material.

 

I can't figure out why most people don't see Fugazi [the album] as the flawless masterpiece it is. Anyway I was sitting here wondering just what the heck I wanted to listen to next. Thank you thread! CaS it is!

 

It does seem that way. Hence my adoration of Fugazi.

 

I bought ‘Script’ on its release year. ‘Fugazi’ is however the favorite but I won’t recommend it to anyone new to the music of Marillion.

There’s something very special about this band (Fish or H era)...kind of leaving some imprints on your musical DNA.