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Rating:
In 1997, ten years have passed since the release of "Clutching At Straws," the swan song of the original lineup with Fish on vocals. Marillion are now fully immersed in the Hogarth era and have shifted their stylistic coordinates, moving away from the typically neo-progressive idioms that they themselves had largely helped to create. After the initial bewilderment of those who had learned to love them during the Fish period, they have demonstrated an excellent ability to reinvent themselves, releasing in 1994 "Brave," considered one of the artistic peaks of their career and marking the definitive passing of the test they were subjected to, Hogarth above all, until then.
In 1997, "This Strange Engine" is released, their first work for their new label Castle Records after the end of their relationship with EMI and after the not too acclaimed "Afraid Of Sunlight," which opens a not-so-lucky period, commercially speaking, for the group, losing a bit of visibility yet demonstrating they still have something to say.
The opening is entrusted to the acoustic guitar chords of "Man Of A Thousand Faces," a song in which it is difficult to recognize the band of "Script For A Jester's Tear" or "Fugazi," and where not many prog elements can be found. However, it grows and builds gradually to a long final coda where Hogarth's voice is accompanied by a children's choir. The subsequent "One Fine Day" and "80 Days" are two other excellent tracks that confirm the impression made by the opener: Marillion have decided to adhere to song form more than they have ever done in the past, allowing fewer variations on the theme, and the result is not bad at all. To definitively dispel all doubts comes "Estonia," a wonderful piece inspired by Steve Hogarth's meeting with one of the survivors of the Estonia ferry sinking in the Baltic Sea, characterized by the sound of the balalaika.
The level remains very good even in "Memory Of Water," focused mainly on Hogarth's voice, and "An Accidental Man," where the prog soul timidly resurfaces; the only significant dip, in my opinion, is in "Hope For The Future," a not entirely successful experiment in using Caribbean sounds. Fortunately, the last track, "This Strange Engine," comes to raise the level, reminding us that prog still runs in Marillion's veins and does so splendidly: 15 minutes in which the atmosphere changes multiple times, leaving more space also for Rothery and Kelly's solos, as well as a saxophone intervention.
Marillion will have to wait for the release of "Marbles" in 2003 to completely regain the favor of their audience and prove they still have a say, but looking back the nine years from "Brave" are not to be overlooked and "This Strange Engine" definitely holds its own in their discography.
Therefore, it deserves 4 stars...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Man of a Thousand Faces (07:31)
I'm the man of a thousand faces
A little piece of me in every part I take
I hold the tape for a thousand races
A different point of view in every speech I make
Cut me a piece of my divided soul
Cry me a river, call it rock and roll
Give me an attitude and watch me make it lie
Pass me a microphone
I need to testify
Well I speak to machines with the voice of humanity
Speak to the wise with the voice of insanity
Speak to the present in the past and future tense
Speak to a slave with the voice of obedience
I'm the man of a thousand ages
You see my face in the stones of the Parthenon
You hear my song in the babble of Babylon
I'm the man of a thousand riches
Be my guest at the feast of Satyricon
You spend the money that my logo's printed on
Well I'll speak to machines with the voice of humanity
Speak to the wise with the voice of insanity
Speak to the present in the past and future tense
Speak to a slave with the voice of obedience
I stole a fire but it burned up much too soon
I took a leap and I landed on the moon
Look at my life and it looks like CNN
You see something once
You know it's gonna come around again
Well I'll speak to machines with the voice of humanity
Speak to the wise with the voice of insanity
Speak to a woman with the fatal charm of a snake
Forgive like a giver and account for all I take
Yes, I speak to machines with the voice of humanity
Speak to the wise with the voice of insanity
Speak like a leader with the voice of power and command
And when I talk to God I know he'll understand
Cause I'm the man of a thousand faces
Yes I'm the man of a thousand faces
I stole a fire but it burned up too much too soon
I took a leap and I landed on the moon
Voice of command
Voice of a snake
Voice of humanity
Voice of insanity
Voice of obedience
Thousand faces
Thousand races
Cry me a river
Steal a fire
Face in the stars
Stones in the Parthenon
Babble of Babylon
Landed on the moon
03 80 Days (04:55)
Staring down from this high window
At the faces in the line
Cold from hours of waiting
How many people can you love?
When you're black and blue with bruises
From collisions on the road
The friction grind of travelling
This is the never ending show
All over the world in eighty days
Head in a blur of information
What kind of a man could live this way
I do what I can
I do okay
But right now
All I want to do
Is get real
If that's all right with you
Woke up last night under the mountains
Driving from Zurich to Milan
I lay there listening to the echoes
Thinking of Iceland and Japan
So many miles, so many faces
And my home so far away
I lose some of me in all these places
And I can't help the way I'm changed
All over the world in eighty days
Memories turn like magazine pages
What kind of a man could live this way
I do what I can
But I can't escape it
Right now
All I want to do
Is get real
If that's all right with you
Right now
All I want to do
Somehow
Be myself with you
All over the world in eighty days
Alcohol haze of information
What kind of a man could live this way
As long as I have
And stay the same
Right now
All I want to do
Is get real
If that's all right with you
Right now
All I want to do
Get real
If that's all right with you
For just one night with you
If that's all right with you
Get real
Get real right now
Somehow
04 Estonia (07:54)
Feeling you shake
Feel your heart break
Thinking if only, if only, if only, if only
And the salt water runs
Through your veins and your bones
Telling you no not this way, not this way, not this way
And you would give anything
Give up everything
Offer your life blood away
For yesterday
No one leaves you
When you live in their heart and mind
And no one dies
They just move to the other side
When we're gone
Watch the world simply carry on
We live on laughing and in no pain
We'll stay and be happy
With those who have loved us today
Finding the answer
It's a human obsession
But you might as well talk to the stones and the trees and the sea
'Cause nobody knows
And so few can see
There's only beauty and caring and truth beyond darkness
No one leaves you
When you live in their heart and mind
And no one dies
They just move to the other side
When we're gone
Watch the world simply carry on
We live on laughing and in no pain
We'll stay and be happy
With those who have loved us today
And we won't understand your grief
Because time is illusion
As this watery world spins around
This timeless sun
Will dry your eyes
And calm your mind
No one leaves you
When you live in their heart and mind
And no one dies
They just move to the other side
When we're gone
Watch the world simply carry on
It's okay, we will stay and be happy
Stay and be happy
With those who have loved us today
05 Memory of Water (02:50)
(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
08 This Strange Engine (15:41)
There was a boy who came into this world
At the hands of a holy woman in a holy place
He wore a red coat and walked a bulldog
Saw them reflected in the mirror of the lakes
Lived in the shadow of the mountains
With the smells of disinfectant, dusty old leather
And the polished wood of his bed
No more than a baby feeding swans on the river
Holding the hands of his mother
And the wax paper bag of yesterday's bread
And his father on the other side of the world
On the ships railings and some far away tide
With the silent dry tear of home thoughts from abroad
In his far away eyes
In his far away eyes
The smell of the wax on the wooden floor
Mixture of polish and soap
No children to fear or to play with
Rows of empty hooks for the coats
An upright piano and the boys in the choir
Still remind him of just before he was born
Remind him of just before he was breathing
Strange misty visions of God
Turn the cities into families
Into villages of souls
Hovering in the air while they're sleeping
With their houses invisible
Chase the moon between the buildings
Running as fast as I could run
Send to me the ghosts of Christmas
Whispering, "You're the only one"
And ever since I was a boy
I never felt that I belonged
Like everything they did to me
Was an experiment to see
How I would cope with the illusion
In which direction would I jump
Would I do it all the same
As the actors in the game
Or would I spit it back at them
And not get caught up in their rules
And live according to my own
And not be used, not be used
To find the fundamental truths
It was going to take some time
Thirty five summers down the line
The wisdom of each passing year
Seems to serve only to confuse
Seems to serve only to confuse
Daddy came out the navy and took us away
To his dirty grey home town
And he worked down on a coal mine for National Service
So that he could be around
There was a magical purple in the chrome of the exhaust
Of his Triumph motor bike
And a warmth of oil and metal and the thrill of the hard corner
Holding tight
From the horizon
Came home from the Navy to the mine
From the horizon
To buried alive
Took his dream underground
Buried his treasure in his faraway eyes
And one day as the boy lay sleeping in the sunshine
Of a half remembered afternoon
A cloud of bees with no particular aim, and no brain
Found the boy, decided that his time had come
Came down out of the sky
Stung him in the face
Again and again
Blue pain
Screaming like baptism
Intravenous, Jesus!
Like being chosen
Blue pain from something with no brain
I can't explain
It's happening again
It's happening again
Oh Mummy, Daddy, will you sit a while with me
Oh Mummy, Daddy, will you jog my memory
Tell me tall tales of Montego Bay
Table mountain, flying fish, banana spiders, pots of paint
And the sun on the equator
Setting like an ember thrown to deep water
From crimson to black
But coming back
Tomorrow
On the horizon
The blue pain
Fades to a point where it doesn't fade
It stayed
Blue
Stirred his red coat heart to this strange engine
This love
This love
This inconvenient, blind, blood-diamond
This puzzle
I don't understand
That knows no faith
And tries and fails
And tries again
Stares at the sea
The night's dark deep
For one last time
And bleeds
And bleeds
And dies for you
And lies
And is to blame
And is ashamed
And is not the same
And is true
And is true
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