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Marillion - Radiation

Artist:	Marillion
Title:	Radiation
Label:	Velvel/Eagle Rock 63467-79760-2
Length(s):	63 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1998
Month of review:	01/1999

Line up

Steve Rothery - guitar
Steve Hogarth - vocals
Mark Kelly - keyboards
Pete Trewawas - bass
Ian Mosely - drums

Tracks

1)	Costa Del Slough	1.27
2)	Under The Sun	4.10
3)	The Answering Machine	3.48
4)	Three Minute Boy	5.59
5)	Now She'll Never Know	4.59
6)	These Chains	4.50
7)	Born To Run	5.11
8)	Cathedral Wall	7.21
9)	A Few Words For The Dead	10.51
10)	Estonia (bonus, acoustic studio version)	6.43
11)	Memory Of Water (bonus, big beat mix)	8.08

Summary

No need going into the history of the band I think. This American release features two bonus tracks. The first of these is incorrectly labelled as mixed by the Silent Buddha's since it is the second of these for which this is the case. Whatever people say about these guys, I still like them. For me This Strange Engine was definitely on the way up with respect to Afraid Of Sunlight. The band however seems to have changed course abruptly again for Radiation, their 10th studio album to date.

The music

Costa del Slough introduces the album almost in the way that the title track of This Strange Engine ended. The following part of this track features warped vocals as if recorded through an old microphone and also musically it is pre-WO II. The follow-up Under The Sun is very different: lots of rock, organdrenched and a great chorus (thanks to the synth). The guitar solo is quite untypical of Rothery. In the old days he was wellknown for his throughly melodic playing, but on this album he plays in diverse styles. This is what we might call the title track, it being the song about radiation. After this rather accessible track we come to the seemingly straightforward The Answering Machine, which is a short catchy track. The melody is very memorable. The bio calls it a punky song, but it's much to plodding for this and far too melodic and features some rather cosmic/radio noise like keyboards. Notwithstanding the shortness of the track there are some interesting breaks here for instance when going from the noisy vocal part to the short acoustic interlude and back. Up to now the going has been good, but the first highpoint is reached on Three Minute Boy, about the shortlivedness of success. In atmosphere it harks back to the quieter parts of TSE (the song). After One Fine Day and Memory Of Water on the previous album, yet another song giving me goosebumps. After the rather quiet first verses, the power is turned up and the electric guitar joins the orchestra. The ending is quite strange. After the bombastic ending of the previous song, Now She'll Never Know is a moving ballad. The singing and the nakedness of the song is comparable to Memory Of Water, the keyboards on this track harken back to the Beatles. A very subtle almost acoustic song. These Chains opens with played-back sounds (cello?). Again, the subject of the lyrics are not really happy, the album seems to be dominated by it. But the stories are real and they live. The song is a mid-tempo melodic one and might remind some of the Beatles (or ELO for that matter) with the slightly dark sound induced by the cello (or an electronic brother thereof). Born To Run as some of you might already have heard is a slow blues song with a warm organsound and as you might expect bluesy guitarwork. The melodicity of Marillion still shines through on this track and the song more sad than bluesy in some way. No song on this album opens as crashingly as Cathedral Wall. Great keyboards here. The song itself is varied one with rather dark and mysterious mood and strong atmosphere building. The song becomes disjointed and almost a jam and the song ends rather like the closing of TSE (the song). In the aftermath These Chains returns with the texture of the closing part of Costa Del Slough. The longest track on the album and the closer is A Few Words For The Dead, that is thoroughly in the Indian vein with sitar and very low bass. All in all a very worldish song that opens rather slow and friendly. Like a river into the sea, the peaceful song opens into a louder, more melodic part. The first bonustrack for this American release is an acoustic version of the beautiful Estonia. I can't say I appreciate it over the first version that is slightly more powerful and sweeping I think. This track is incoorectly dubbed as being mixed by the Silent Buddha's on the back of the album, because that is of course the dance remix of the great Memory Of Water. My girlfriend thinks its sacrilege to remix such a song and put a beat beneath it. On the one hand she is right since the rhythm of the beat does not really jive with the lyrics. Towards the end of the track this remix gains stature of its own with very fitting keyboards.

Conclusion

Still unmistakenly the band of This Strange Engine some changes have taken place: the guitar has come to the fore, the sound is generally more noisy, riffbased and catchy, and the guitar sound is sometimes quite modern and reminds me sometimes of the alternative bands of today. You might say then that the sound of Marillion has been updated, but no by selling out (as they were accused of with Holidays In Eden), but by introducing a strong variety in the tracks. By far the best song in my opinion is Three Minute Boy, but there is just no weak song on this album (at least not as weak as Eighty Days, because of its chorus, on the previous one). As such I can really not see what people are complaining about, because this is again a terrific album, probably even more consistent than TSE and also more instantly likable than that same album. The problem with both TSE and Afraid Of Sunlight has been I think the fact that the first few listens reveal very little. Almost a constant landscape and it takes time to appreciate the detail. This album is much more catchy and hence should appeal to more people. Maybe not the standard prog crowd, but an audience nonetheless.