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Rating: What are the old Marillion offering us this autumn of 2009? An album of old tracks rearranged acoustically: a sort of greatest hits with the concession of the new sound style or a true new work? A bit of both, depending on how you consider the almost thirty-year career of the five former English lads, once the flag bearers of new prog.
Certainly, this "Less Is More" (L=M), produced over the last summer and soon to be associated with an obviously acoustic tour (only one date in Italy, November 16, in the splendid setting of the church of Santa Maria all'Ara Coeli in Rome, don't miss it if you can), is not exactly the successor of the excellent "Happiness Is The Road", but neither is it a useless collection put together to scrape in a few bucks from the hardcore fan base. The tracks, selected here and there (but not by chance) throughout the entire "H phase" of the career (since 1989, when the little Steve Hogarth joined the group after the departure-expulsion of the gigantic - in many ways - Fish, the frontman of their early days and worldwide successes), have undergone not a simple reduction, but almost a stripping down, deconstruction, and re-dressing. In almost all cases, despite missing the more typically electric sound, they've been enriched with new nuances, small pearls generously shared by the band members (a concept that matches well with the album's title, "Less Is More"). Twelve old tracks, almost an hour of music that contrary to what might have been feared, is rich in novelty and creative freshness.
And so "Hard as Love", the hardest chapter from the masterpiece Brave (and perhaps the entire Marillion career), takes on a soft guise, with a splendid piano accompanying Hogarth's intense singing and a cadence capable of capturing the listener.
Similarly, "Quartz", an electric gem from Anoraknophobia, loses its funky feel, with that bass that almost ripped heartbeats from your chest, to live entirely on the wonderful work of God Steve Rothery, a guitarist never celebrated enough.
There are many real gems among the twelve tracks, from the reinterpretation of two masterpieces like "Out of This World" and "Interior Lulu" (from "Afraid of Sunlight" and "Marillion.com" respectively) to the recovery of "minor" tracks like "Go" and "Wrapped Up In Time" (the only extract from "Happiness is The Road"), which definitely gain something compared to the originals, without losing impact and strength.
The album also contains an unreleased track, "It's Not Your Fault", a ballad that, after being left out of the band's last three works (a classic leftover), is rewarded for the wait with this delicate acoustic guise, the classic piano-voice duet with Mark Kelly sharing the stage with Mr. H. To close, the little game of the hidden track (which isn’t all that hidden, fans of the group will recognize the track immediately, hint: it's from "Afraid of Sunlight" and it's an excursion into American territories, with Beach Boys influences).
In summary, an album for aficionados but one that could also win over those approaching the band for the first time. An album in which Marillion show their undiminished desire to play, to have fun, to experiment with new ways, to move the fans, and - perhaps - to win over new ones. A mandatory mention for Steve Hogarth: after 20 years, he has finally managed to shake off the label of "Fish's replacement", with vocal qualities beyond the ordinary and a contribution to the group's creative phase far greater than that of the Scottish woodsman.
Tracklist and Lyrics
03 Out of This World (05:07)
Three hundred miles an hour on water
In your purpose-built machine
No one dared to call a boat
Screaming blue
Out of this world
Make history
This is your day
Blue
Bird
At such speeds... things fly
What did she say?...
I know the pain of too much tenderness
Wondering when or if you'll come back again
Wanting to live for you
And being banned from giving
But only love will turn you around
Only love will turn you around
Only love
Only love will turn you around
So we live you and I
Either side of the edge
And we run and we scream
With the dilated stare
Of obsession and dreaming
What the hell do we want
Is it only to go
Where nobody has gone
A better way than the herd
Sing a different song
Till you're running the ledge
To the gasp from the crowd
Spinning round in your head
Everything that she said...
06 Hard as Love (04:58)
Well I hear that you were looking out to hunt me down
And I guess you're used to having everything you want
But you know that love can be as hard as sticks and stones
I tell you nothing else can be as hard as love can
Well I hear you got my number and you want my name
I'm a stream of noughts and crosses in your R-A-M
But you know that love can be as hard as algebra
Baby nothing else has ever been as hard as love
Hard as love
Well I hear that you were lookin' out to take me home
And I hear that you can handle it and you're not scared
Have you heard about the pictures on my bedroom wall?
Baby nothing else has ever been as hard as love
Hard as love
Well it makes you hungry and it makes you high
It makes you suffer and it makes you cry
But it's all worthwhile
It makes you humble and it makes you crawl
It makes you tremble and it makes you fall
But it's all worthwhile
It makes you desperate and it makes you dream
It makes you dangerous and it makes you scream
But it's all worthwhile
Just lie back and smile
"We will continue to love you even though the rest of the world hates you."
It makes you hungry and it makes you high
It makes you suffer and it makes you cry
It makes you panic and it makes you vain
It makes you primitive and sick inside
It makes you angry and it makes you blind
It makes you guilty and it makes you lie
Tied up and beaten
Spat out and eaten
Suicidal
Nothing's ever been as hard
Well I hear that were lookin' out to change my faith
You can bash me with your book of words, hammer me down
But you know that love can be as hard as six inch nails
Baby nothing else has ever been as hard as love
Hard as love
07 Quartz (05:47)
I can imagine nothing more tedious
Than trying to have fun with you again
Maybe it's just someting in my mind
But I hate feeling like I'm trying all the time
It's a kind of lie
When we pretend that we're still friends
I'm sure that you're not exactly short of people to
hang out and laugh at your jokes
Tell you you look great
You wouldn't want me around
Making it all feel "forced"
..and "put down"
And every time I smile to wonder if I'm laughin' at you
And with every little grin you don't want to be wonderin'
Just exactly what it is I'm taking pleasure in
Although I always said
We were basically the same and all one
All one
It's so easy to persuade myself
I'm clockwork and you're quartz
I guess that irony
Will surely be
The death of me
And every time I smile d'you wonder if I'm laughin' at you?
And with every little grin you don't want to be wonderin'..
Although I always said
We were basically the same and all one
All one
It's so easy to persuade myself
I'm clockwork and you're quartz
You're only happy when you're oiled and jewelled
You're only happy when you wind me up and I know
You're so reliable it isn't true
And it's so easy for me to break down
If I could jump a ride between the skin and silicon then
We could join hands and understand. Hallelujah!
But I listen
to the ticking
I guess we're worlds apart ...
It's so hard. So hard
I know there's no going back
And you know there's no going back
You're only happy when you're oiled and jewelled
You're only happy when you're oiled and jewelled
You're never happy
I need maintenance
I need patience
I'm not foolproof
I'm not waterproof
I'm not shockproof
Bombproof
Bulletproof
Fireproof
Leakproof
Childproof
Stainproof
Pressureproof
I know I told myself
We're all basically the same and all one
All one
Y'know I just can't help myself
I'm clockwork and you're quartz
I'm clockwork and you're quartz
I know I never get the balance right
And turn up half an hour late night after night
And being totally dependable is very commendable
Altough you're never wrong
One of these days.. you're just gonna stop.
10 Memory of Water (02:37)
(Music: Marillion Lyrics: John Helmer)
I wonder if my rope’s still hanging from the tree
By the standing pool where you drank me
And filled me full of thirsty love
And the memory of water?
‘Wonder if a king still fishes there
His back toward the burned out air
His laughing catches singing loud
The memory of water
Your taste is blood and ecstasy
But I must drink you all alone
You’re freckled like a speckled egg
A dove… but this bird has flown
O stay with me sweet memory
O stay with me
Wonder if my rope’s still hanging from the tree
By the standing pool where you drank me
As pain flows through me like champagne
Of the memory of water
11 This Is the 21st Century (05:40)
A wise man once said
A flower is only
A sexual organ
Beauty is cruelty
And evolution
A wise man once said
that everything could be explained with mathematics
He had denied
His feminine side
Now where is the wisdom in that?
I came just as fast as I could
Through the dirty air
Of your neighbourhood
Your name on a grain of rice
Hangin' around my neck
And a head like lead
This is the 21st century
I heard everything they said
The Universe demystified
Chemicals for God
This is the 21st century
I heard everything they said
A wise man once wrote
That love is only
An ancient instinct
For reproduction
Natural selection
A wise man once said
That everything could be explained
And it's all in the brain
We lay on a velvet rug
by the open fire
She blew air on my eyelids
I cried "What's it all about?"
As she kissed my hair
She said "There, there.."
"This is the 21st century
I heard everything you said
The universe demystified
Astronomy instead
This is the 21st century
Can't you get it through your head
This aint the way it was meant to be
Magic isn't dead
Come to bed
Come to bed
And rest your heavy head my love.."
And slowly, from above,
She showed the answer's something that can't be written down
This is the 21st century
Flash to crash and burn
Nobody's gonna give you anything
For nothing in return
There's a man up in a mirrored building
And he just bought the world
Would you want
To have kids
Growing up
Into what's left of this?
She shook her head,
She said "Can't you see?
The world is you
The world is me."
12 Cannibal Surf Babe (03:27)
(Music: Marillion Lyrics: Steve Hogarth & John Helmer)
Well she tied me to the headboard with a surf leach
And her wet hair hugged her body like a long-lost friend
And I really tried my best to get across to her
But nothing she would say could be defended
Well her birthday suit it was her only present
When I looked into her eyes - no history
And I told her eating people wasn't pleasant
But she laughed a snake eye laugh and walked away from me
I watched her as she walked across the coals
I watched her as she walked across the coals
She was singing: I was born in nineteen sixty weird
And I am your nightmare surfer babe
Mr. Wilson where's your sandbox and your beard
Are you still looking for the perfect microwave
So I did my best to try and get across her
I said: "One day every pebble hits the beach"
And I kissed her face and held her like a long-lost friend
But she was too far out there to be reached
She was singing: I was born in nineteen sixty weird
I'm your nightmare surfer babe
Mr. Wilson where's your sandbox and your beard
Are you still looking for that perfect microwave?
And the sun came up over the mountain
And the waves rolled in across the bay
And the fabulous brightly coloured birds flew up out of the forest
And she said "Well we're all heaven's beautiful children livin' together in paradise
Lie down my dear... you're going to enjoy this"
She looked like she'd had sex
With a tyrranosaurus rex
She was singing: I was born in nineteen sixty weird
I'm your nightmare surfer babe
Mr. Wilson where's your sandbox and your beard
Are you still looking for that perfect microwave?
And I watched her as she walked across the coals
And I watched her as she walked across the coals
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