With Parlophone/Warner having completed their deluxe treatments of Marillion’s EMI back catalogue, the band have apparently decided to carry this process forward on their own with a brand-new remix of their ninth album (and fifth with Steve Hogarth), This Strange Engine, accompanied by a full concert from the tour and a disc of B-sides and bonus tracks. The presentation is totally in-keeping with the earlier efforts, and I should not be too surprised if an e-mail from Marillion HQ isn’t forthcoming next year to inform us that Radiation will be next.
As the band note on the accompanying documentary film, This Strange Engine came out of a period of great uncertainty for them. With EMI having cut them lose, they now had to find a new home with a smaller label which inevitably came with a smaller budget. Following a brief hiatus where Rothery and Hogarth focused on solo projects, the band came together again to work on new material for the first of a run of three albums on Castle’s imprint Raw Power. Positively, the band were on the cusp of a new-found independence, one which would soon see them find out that the Racket Club would prove invaluable to their future moving forward.
Fans obviously have differing views about where the album places amongst their favourites, but for me This Strange Engine is hands-down the stand-out album of the three Castle releases and, in my view, one of their very best overall. In the Hogarth-era, I rate it at the top alongside Afraid Of Sunlight and Marbles. It might not be a prog tour de force, but it is a very varied and engaging release, and it is worth keeping in mind that, in the title track, it hosts one of the band’s finest epics.
This Strange Engine was an album which came out when I was an undergraduate and it really helped me to reconnect with a band that I had lost touch with after Holidays In Eden. I laugh to think about it now, but Brave was a challenge and Afraid Of Sunlight repelled me back then. It wasn’t until I picked up the live Made Again that I felt confident about returning to those two concept albums. In contrast to heavier tracks like Hard As Love, King and the eccentric Cannibal Surf Babe, I found that Rothery’s acoustic guitars on This Strange Engine gave space to the other band members, not least Kelly and Mosley, whilst the choruses to songs like the two singles (Man Of A Thousand Faces and 80 Days) were instantly memorable.
The album opens with Man Of A Thousand Faces, a two-part song with the verse-chorus part featuring a superb piano solo from Mark Kelly and the latter part a repeated ‘world music’ refrain built around a choir of voices. This track is one of four sets of lyrics written for the album by John Helmer – and no one has any idea what this one is about. He also penned the words for the bluesy ballad, One Fine Day. Terrific singing from Hogarth and a good contrast to sandwich between the more upbeat singles.
Estonia is without question one of the best songs Marillion have ever released and it works brilliantly in electric, acoustic and orchestral formats. The band have been blest with, not one, but two great lyricists who can carry off a really serious topic with gravitas and move the listener. To write a song which simultaneously pays tribute to the nearly 1,000 people who died on the ferry disaster and speak to everyone’s personal grief at losing a loved one, is an extraordinary achievement. To move the listener without cheapening a real tragedy is remarkable. Musically, the compound-time chorus combining guitar, keyboard and balalaika is so good that I bought the album on the strength of listening to it in Virgin Megastore before they even got as far as the second verse. I was always surprised that I went to see them live a number of times before I finally got to hear them play it. I can’t imagine ever leaving a song like this off a setlist.
The folky, largely a cappella Memory Of Water is an interesting departure. I also enjoyed the Positive Light version of this and the Big Beat mix featured here (which I believe Fish’s ex-keyboard player Tony Turrell had some involvement in). An Accidental Man finally makes it onto an album, having been overlooked for Afraid Of Sunlight. It’s a decent rocker, driven by a Rothery riff and precedes a track that even some of the band struggled with, far less the fans. Hope For the Future begins in familiar territory before surprising the listener by opening out into a Calypso number. It’s… a little odd, but not unpleasant. The band’s bemusement about this one reminds me of Steve Howe discussing the ABWH album’s ‘calypso’ moment, saying: ‘Teakbois, I don’t think anyone understood but Jon.’
The album rounds out with the 16-minute title track, Marillion’s longest epic at that point since Grendel. Well, This Strange Engine is miles better than Grendel. A collection of various pieces of music put to the story of Hogarth’s childhood and growing up, it delights and moves the listener at every turn. The soloing from Kelly and Rothery on this track is first class. In fact, both of them put in what are arguably their best ever solos. Mark Kelly told me in an interview a few years ago, that the epics were his favourites because they take you on journey; this is both figuratively and literally true here. The music is a journey and so too is the story of Hogarth and his father. I can feel myself caught between the sun setting over the sea in warmer climates and the pull of being home in England. This song has been a go-to for me when abroad ever since I saw flying fish dancing in front of the bow of a boat in the Med.
I don’t really know if the re-mix itself changes things much. This doesn’t sound very different to the original. Not that that matters, it was great to begin with. It’s the package as a whole that is worth the asking price. The arrangement of this deluxe set is what we’ve come to expect from Marillion so far. I’m delighted that the high bar set by Parlophone has been maintained here in terms of quality. The full concert on CD and film-length documentary with lots of bonus features on the Blu-ray is all here (and, yes, the documentary does explore how a tech savvy Mark Kelly and some American fans might have pioneered crowdfunding). The extra bit of good news, though, is that the band have given us the B-sides and the acoustic tracks as an audio CD. These are rounded out with a couple of live tracks from the Paris show which may or may not have begun life on their earlier double live, the amusingly entitled, Piston Broke. A great package of a top album from a top band who were at the top of their game in uncertain times.
TRACK LISTING
Disc 1
This Strange Engine (2024 re-mix)
01. Man Of A Thousand Faces (7:33)
02. One Fine Day (5:32)
03. 80 Days (5:00)
04. Estonia (7:57)
05. Memory Of Water (3:01)
06. An Accidental Man (6:12)
07. Hope For The Future (5:11) 08. This Strange Engine (15:38)
Disc 2
Live in Grand Rapids: 21st September 1997 (Pt. 1)
01. Intro (1:14)
02. Estonia (8:15)
03. Lap Of Luxury (5:36)
04. Hard As Love (7:03)
05. 80 Days (5:16)
06. Warm Wet Circles (10:18)
07. Man Of A Thousand Faces (7:45)
08. Season’s End (7:57]
Disc 3
Live in Grand Rapids: 21st September 1997 (Pt. 2)
01. This Town (11:37)
02. Slainte Mhath (5:35)
03. King (7:39)
04. Bass Solo (2:09)
05. This Strange Engine (18:27)
06. Easter (6:14)
07. White Russian (6:12)
08. Garden Party (7:33)
Disc 4
B-sides and Bonus Tracks 01. Man Of A Thousand Faces (radio edit) (3:38)
02. Beautiful (unplugged version) (4:50)
03. Made Again (unplugged version) (5:16)
04. Man Of A Thousand Faces (extended version) (8:20)
05. This Strange Engine (live in Paris) (16:11)
06. Bell In The Sea (live in Paris) (4:19)
07. 80 Days – Racket Acoustic Session (4:46)
08. Estonia – Racket Acoustic Session (6:42)
09. Man Of A Thousand Faces – Racket Acoustic Session (4:08)
10. Memory Of Water (Big Beat mix) (8:06)
Blu-ray
This Strange Engine 2024 (stereo and 5.1); Documentary Film; Jams And Early Versions, Man Of A Thousand Faces video and Estonia (With Friends From The Orchestra version); Live in Tivoli, Utrecht (full bootleg concert).
MUSICIANS
Steve Hogarth – Vocals
Steve Rothery – Guitar
Mark Kelly – Keyboards
Pete Trewavas – Bass
Ian Mosley – Drums, Percussion
~ With:
Disc 1
Charlton & Newbottle School Choir – Choir (1)
Tim Perkins – Balalaika (4)
Phil Todd – Saxophone (8)
Paul Savage – Trumpet (8)
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: earMUSIC
Country of Origin: U.K.
Date of Release: 22nd November 2024