Marillion, to me has, always sounded like a second rate
Genesis. Not in a bad way…just that I
felt their sound was not really their own. (Another thing I’ve noticed about
Marillion is how many of their song names later became names of bands (Fugazi,
Incubus, &c.). Whether this is by design or not is really anyone’s guess (An
irrelevant fact, worth noting none the less). This Edison’s Children project
seems to have allowed the contributing members to stretch out a bit, and
experiment with sounds and styles.
I like the tension that’s created in the “Fracture” intro.
The slow build is pretty effective. It’s like sleepy rock. The tribal, jungle
rhythms lull the listener into a trance-like state. Similarly, “Fallout (Of The
2nd Kind)” is very dense. Between the synth melody, the effects on
the vocals, the percussion (which is mixed surprisingly low), there’s a lot for
the listener to process.
The stutter step funk of “The “Other” Other Dimension” is
fun at first, but I’m grateful for the changes as they occur. It mutates into
something around the two minute mark that I rather enjoy (though it’s hard to
say what that is exactly), but by the third minute it winds up sounding exactly
like the track before it. Much to my relief, it returns to the stutter-funk
without much ado, and remains in a suspended state of strange for the rest of
the song.
“A Million Miles Away (I Wish I Had A Time Machine)” sounds
like it would fit nicely on the B-side of a John Frusciante album. With those
guitar melodies and vocal harmonies, it sounds like something that might have
been cut from Shadows Collide With People
(for no readily discernible reason).
“Outerspaced” is promising; it has a pretty gnarly bass
groove. I like heavy riff-laden rock, and that’s basically what this track
amounts to. It’s almost like Clutch meets AC/DC. It ends rather abruptly and
the opening notes of the following track ooze through the speakers sounding
like a polished remnant of something someone scraped up off Pink Floyd’s
cutting room floor.
This album’s a grower, not a shower. It takes a few times
through to appreciate the subtle nuanced texture and really get to know it.
(That is, if you have the time and patience for that kind of thing …) If you’re
expecting to be wow’d right out of the gate, you’re only setting yourself up
for disappointment. By the third or fourth spin, you should start to see what I
mean. (And if you still don’t like the album, try drinking more. I’ve found
this helps.) It’s atmospheric and emotional, but at times texturally confusing.
Often you might end up missing the forest for the trees. I found myself getting
so hung up on individual parts that I missed out on how they may have worked
into the larger composition.
3.5/5 Stars
Key Tracks: A Million Miles Away (I Wish I Had A Time Machine), Outerspaced, In The Last Waking Moments
Key Tracks: A Million Miles Away (I Wish I Had A Time Machine), Outerspaced, In The Last Waking Moments
Drew Vreeland
April 13, 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment