Marillion – Somewhere Else
“Such a thin line between love and hate”
With Marbles firmly in hand the boys (and girl) set out on their biggest tour since 1997, in support of their successful new album. A total of 65 shows were performed. The band had stated their intention to hit as many countries as possible with the funds they had received from the 14000 pre-orders. Eighteen countries were visited throughout Europe the UK Canada and The United States. The tour kicked off at a hometown gig in Aylesbury on April 29 2004 and ended October 13 2004 in Quebec City…yeah Canada. After Pete’s mugging in Toronto in 1997, and probably also due to promotors/date limitations, the band ended up skipping Hogtown for the first time ever on a North American tour…the bastards. So I ended up deciding to go to Montreal, not wanting to miss their first tour back to the New World in 7 years. I’m so glad I did as well. The show was at the now defunct Le Spectrum which was a great venue, similar in layout to the L’Olympia where they would settle on for their North American Weekend shows beginning in 2009. The band opened with The Invisible Man and I shit you not, at the end of the song the crowd gave the band a 10 minute standing ovation…It was unreal…the band were literally stopped in their tracks and clearly taken aback by the volume and duration of the applause received. I’ve never seen anything quite like it at any other show I’ve been to and it was a moment I’ll never forget (barring dementia in which case I’ll probably forget it in due time). They performed the Marbles single CD from start to end and then followed up with a smattering of songs from all h era albums with the exception of This Strange Engine, and three encores consisting of 6 songs. Over the course of the tour they performed about 45 different songs at various shows. Quite a spread, but anyone hoping to hear some good old barn stomping fishy standards were bound to be disappointed as the band didn’t perform anything pre 1989. I’m not sure if it was an intentional decision, though I have to assume it probably was. Bold and risky without a doubt as it risked alienating anyone hoping for a bit of their origin story to be aired, but that would not be the case on this tour. They likely felt a sense of liberation from record companies, and with the success of the crowdfunding campaigns, confident and comfortable enough to not feel the need to do so. Maybe some were pissed…actually I’m positive some were pissed…but you know what? It’s their band and they can play whatever the fuck they want to play. Prior to the NA leg of the tour they also released the DVD Marbles On The Road which was their first commercially available Video release since Stoke Row To Ipanema in 1990. There had been other releases but only through their Racket Records/Marillion online store. It is a great visual document from the tour. Like many of their commercial releases, the version through Racket Records is the better option as it contains 2 DVDs of material while the retail version only one. A live version of The Damage was released as a single from the set, and with a push from the band to their fans, managed to hit number 2 in the digital download charts.
In the summer of ’04 the band announced their third official Marillion Weekend which would take place again at Butlins, Minehead (England) on March 11th – 14th 2005. The sold out event would be the first to feature three full nights of music, the first two having only afternoon related events on their respective Sundays. The itinerary for the weekend was as follows. Friday support acts Bella and Carrie Tree followed by Marillion performing the full 2 disc version of Marbles and an after show by a band called Soul Beaver. Saturday night featured The Plugs, Kid G and Amy Wadge followed by “The Party” mystery set that included Swap and Join the Band. The set would turn out to be all rocking tunes and was released later as “Smoke” via Racket Records. Sunday night featured ex-Japan and Porcupine Tree keyboardist Richard Barbieri (whom Hogarth would go on to record the 2012 album Not The Weapon But The Hand) and the band Pineapple Thief. The mystery set “A Collection” would be released as “Mirrors” and was made up of all slow songs. Both Saturday and Sunday nights also featured a Rock Disco after party with everyone checking out on Monday…very hungover…if not still legally drunk. Here is the weekend roundup from the website https://web.archive.org/web/20060112013805/http://www.marillionweekend.com/2005/index.htm. They also noted in their follow up news item on Marillion.com the following “And now some statistics: 2700 people. No security. No backstage security. No trouble. Whatsoever. We salute you. You rock.” That’s what I love about Marillion events…they really never need security. If you’ve ever been to one of their shows…barring the odd dick who feels the need to prove that they are…in fact…a dick…the security basically stand around bored the entire evening (probably wondering what the fuck they are listening to). What the band didn’t mention is the wonderful aroma of beer farts that also tends pervade the air at Marillion events…but that’s a different kind of offence.
Originally the plan was for the band to participate in several festivals in North America in the summer of 2005 with a tour to be conducted in tandem, but as they began to fall through it became clear that a stand alone tour was not feasible. At this time the Los Trios Marillos was formed with the idea that h, Pete and Rothery would do a small tour of select cities performing as an acoustic trio. At the same time they had also begun working on material to the follow up to Marbles, noting in May that they were “ steaming ahead with our FOURTEENTH studio album! We’ve been hard at work in the studio the past few weeks with Mike Hunter (who worked with us on ‘Brave’, ‘Afraid of Sunlight’, and mixed a fair chunk of ‘Marbles’ and all of the ‘Marbles on the Road’ DVD), and have already begun recording some bits for TWO new songs: “Circular Ride” and “Say The Word” (both of which were started during the ‘Marbles’ writing sessions, but never made it to the final album…)”. In June the trio flew across the pond and did 6 or 7 shows with a host of record store/radio station promotional events as well. Included this time was Toronto, where the band played at The Mod Club…which I’m pretty sure I suggested to Lucy when she was asking for recommendations for venues for the tour. It was a great little spot that was owned by the singer of the band Platinum Blonde (Mark Holmes) and sadly just closed down a few months ago due to a year without live concerts due to COVID. One of many venue casualties in my city alone. I believe I met Lucy in person for the first time at this event. It was a unique type show, with lots of rarer tunes being performed in various forms, such as Tumble Down The Years, Enlightened, After Me and Made Again, as well as an abridged acoustic Ocean Cloud. The mini tour was a success and with travel Visa’s still active they decided to return to the west coast of the US for an additional 6 shows in November. This was all a nice treat for North American fans of the band, as it gave them something that, though also done in a few places in the UK, felt special…where normally as fans we end up only hearing about all the great things happening Somewhere Else. Suck on that ROW…they like us more…
. This was followed by a 15 date Not Quite Christmas Tour in November/December of 2005.
By October the band had 5 songs completed and had also just hired on Stephanie Bradley to their team as Communications Assistant and Convention Coordinator. After a short rest, and a few side project plans, they reconvened in January of 2006. In March the Los Trios did two shows in Mexico and one full band festival show on June 24 at Wawel Castle in Krakow Poland. Those were the only shows of 2006.
Meanwhile plans had been under way since early 2006, for the second Marillion Weekend since the release of Marbles…the band at this point really leaning into the idea of taking their time writing and recording. This fourth Weekend event would be held for the first time in CenterParcs Port Zelande in the Netherlands from February 3-5 2007. I just realized no one every answered my question about the “the” in the Netherlands…is it a conglomerate of regions or are the Dutch just really into “articles” of speech? I’m going to keep asking till someone answers. Maybe it’s just because Netherlands is pleural…anyway back to your regularly scheduled weekend. Here is how MW2007 played out. Friday night the band previewed five songs from the forthcoming album, being The Other Half, The Last Century For Man, Thankyou Whoever You Are, Most Toys and The Wound, followed by the 10th anniversary full album performance of This Strange Engine. Saturday night was covers and rarities and Sunday was band favourites. It was the weekend that they first debuted their take on Brittany Spears’ Toxic as well as Hocus Pocus by Focus. Support acts over the weekend included A Day’s Work, Gazpacho, Jason Hart, Mr. So and So, The Sad Song Co., Steve Thorne and The Wannabeatles. I’m guessing everyone had a smashing good time. I wasn’t there cause my kids were only 2 and 4 and I still hadn’t yet moved into the “are you ok if I go away for four or five days to see Marillion?” phase of my marriage. FYI the most frequent response to this question is the response “Pardon me?” which I usually take to mean “Sure” and hope for the best. Also, as mentioned before, Toronto…Europe…not close…not cheap. My patience would pay off though for MW2009. More on that in our next episode. You can read all about how everyone had the best time, even though I wasn’t there…here – https://web.archive.org/web/20070604182924/http://www.marillionweekend.com/2007/index.htmAlrighty then…wasn’t there an album that was supposed to be coming out? Right. So big pre-order campaign just like the last two albums? Not this time, my crowdfunding junkies. On January 27 2007 the band posted the following on their news page:
“As most of you probably know, our new (and 14th!) album “Somewhere Else” is now finished, set to be released on 9th April 2007, and is one hell of an album. Unlike previous years where we’ve had extensive pre-order campaigns, this album is taking more of a “normal” course into the shops – but of course we’ve found a way to put a twist on it.
We will not be selling the album on our website until it’s released, but our friends at Townsend Records will be putting our album on sale NOW for advance order… and not only that, if you pre-order from them you’ll get Something Else: an exclusive DVD of 3 new tracks from “Somewhere Else” recorded live at the Marillion Weekend 2007 as part of your order.
This DVD won’t be for sale – it’s ONLY available if you pre-order “Somewhere Else” from www.townsend-records.co.uk/marillion – not too bad, eh? What lovely chaps they are.”
Then weirdest thing happened…fans got pissed off that they weren’t being asked to pre-order the record. Literally people were posting all over the online forums how upset they were that the band didn’t want to take their money in advance of the release. It seems crazy but by this point there was such a sense of investment in the band by many fans, that not being asked was seen as a personal offense. How things had changed in several years from when the band first tentatively asked if anyone would be interested in doing such a thing. Alas there was no pre-order and thus no special edition of the album with big fancy packaging and artwork (though the 2011 reissue did see the addition of a 36-page deluxe edition in a digibook package). What the did do, however, was provide something else for fans who pre-ordered the album directly from Racket Records. Literally the gift the came with the album Somewhere Else was cleverly called Something Else which was a DVD containing videos three live songs (Last Century For Man, The Wound and Thankyou Whoever You Are) performed at the 2007 Marillion Weekend.
Somewhere Else was released on April 9 2007, a month shy of three years since Marbles. This time it was produced and mixed by Michael Hunter. The press release for the record can actually be found here https://marillion.com/news/newsitem.htm?id=104 – proclaiming “The new album ‘Somewhere Else’ could well be the one that brings the band the widespread global recognition they have long deserved. Those who’ve heard it think it’s the best Marillion album yet AND it’s their 14th – that’s three more albums than U2, two more than The Beatles, and the same number as The Ramones, a feat rare in the annals of rock.”
Let’s see if the prediction was true.
The record leads off with The Other Half which has a bit of a mid-paced Tomorrow Never Knows vibe. I like this song a lot and it is a pretty good song to kick off the album. Lush and psychedelic with some nice piano breaks. The second half evokes the essence of what Marillion do great with respect to elevating a song from good to great with a sweet guitar solo before the song gently departs with a nice little piano motif. A solid beginning.
Second song is See It Like A Baby which was also the first single, reaching number 45 in the UK charts, though it did hit number 1 in the HMV download charts. Pete and Ian are nice and prevalent in the mix as they are for much of this album, which is nice. It is a pretty OK song. I don’t love it but I don’t hate it. It suffers from a repetitive chorus and it succeeds musically more than lyrically. Not the most interesting song they have ever recorded. If I’m being honest it is a bit of a let down after 3 years of writing.
The second single Thankyou Whoever You Are is up next. I have no idea why they spelled it Thankyou. Maybe it is a creative choice. I’m gonna be straight up and honest as I’ve been from the beginning of these reviews and just call them like I see them. This one for me is a bit of a drag and an unfortunate one-two punch of averageness after See It Like A Baby. It sounds far more earnest and woeful than it is effective. Marillion can kick the shit out of emotion, even on lesser songs, but this one is a bit of a foul ball from my seat in the stands. The guitar solo is nice as is the piano but it just doesn’t really get beyond simply OK. It also suffers from a repetitive chorus of just the title lyric, same as the previous song. So basically two songs in a row that are similar in style and execution and both more meh than yeah. Hopefully things will improve from here….
Uh Oh. Um…OK…well…this is something different I guess. The Most Toys. Possibly the most reviled song in the entire Marillion catalog. It is a three minute garage rock song that kind of harkens back to Hooks In You…except it isn’t as catchy or interesting. I think fans were more forgiving of Hooks In You being from the first post-fish album and rooting for our boys…but by this point in their career, having established such a rich tapestry of amazing songs…following on the excellent Marbles album…I don’t know…I mean I don’t hate it…but I…well I don’t hate it…The best think I can really say about it is that it is less than three minutes long so it doesn’t really outstay its welcome…actually I kind of does…Sometimes I don’t mind it and truthfully I don’t have a problem with it live due to its brevity but I don’t ever go to a Marillion show thinking “FUCK I hope they play The Most Toys”. I’m pretty confident that no one does. It has only been played 22 times in the past 13 years and all were in 2007 so I guess the band also aren’t pining to take this one out of the garage much either.
Gimme something good. I need reassurance that the past 3 years wasn’t in vain. Luckily the diamond of the album is next. The title track, Somewhere Else, is a song that is up there with the best of the material they have written. Without a doubt it is the best song on the album. It is a slower paced, beautifully played piano led number that at just under 8 minutes is the longest song on the record. Full of gorgeous falsetto and a woeful lyric that aches with sadness, the first half of the song gently sways like a lullaby with lovely guitar work by the guitar guy. Like many Marillion songs in the 8 minute range, it shifts about half way and like most that do, succeeds in moving the song from a very good one to an absolute classic. Everything drops away and it feels like we are in outerspace…with lunar pings and vocals that sound like they are filtered through a walkie-talkie before the h’s sublime lead vocals float overtop it all like a fluttering butterfly. The song builds to an immensely powerful ending. Listen, this may not be the best Marillion album but I’d gladly pay $20 for this song alone. It’s that great. The final lunar ping is fucking awesome…just wanted to mention that.
In a rare moment, a gentle somber piano fades in the beginning of A Voice From The Past. I just realized that this song is actually referencing John Lennon’s quest for peace and love, and that the sound after the words “gone, gone, gone” is the sound of a gun being fired. It uses the reference as a counterpoint to the current state of the world (then and now to be honest). The line “Common cold. Dirty water. HIV. Common apathy. Common crime. Perfect nonsense to the next Generation” is the pivot point of the song as the build really kicks in with emotive and effective intensity. The back half of the song really is amazing with some more sweet licking by Rother’s picking. I’m not certain but I’m guessing this song was probably inspired by a news story of kids dying of some kind of water based disease in a foreign country. I’m basing this on two lines of lyric. “Taken by bad luck and the ill fortune of geography” and the final words spoken on the song “A tap with clean water”. Maybe it’s obvious…I don’t know…I’m deficient with respect to symbolism and metaphors and usually most lyrics go right over my head…to be honest I’m more about how words sound than the words themselves. That’s why I love Jon Anderson…his words sound amazing despite the fact that I have no idea what the fuck he is talking about. I do think though, that this song is a direct result of the postings by the band through 2006 about Make Poverty History (they posted about it in both April and November of that year).
Some people say this album has elements of Radiohead (who I love), Keene (who I don’t know) and Coldplay (who I don’t really like). I can’t say for sure if that is correct but I do know that while listening to No Such Thing, that it reminds me exactly Talk Show Host, which was the B-Side to Radiohead’s 1995 song Street Spirit from The Bends. Incidentally for anyone interested I’ll probably be doing an album by album assessment of Radiohead when I get there…probably around the time of COVID-20. No Such Thing is a sparse and stark song with a stripped back guitar motif and tremolo vocals for the majority of its four minutes. There is a beautiful break that elevates it in the bridge with great sounding drums. I love how Ian Mosley always manages to sound so powerful but his playing is so very restrained. The song doesn’t stray too far from it’s beginnings but it does manage to effectively capture a sense of resignation – both to a failing world and a failing relationship, without any promise of things improving.
The Wound is the second longest song on the album at just over 7 minutes. I like this song a lot. Apparently it is based on a real life incident on a boat where h got his hand slashed open while trying to stop a fight between his then bassist and drummer in his pre-Europeans band Harlow back in the 80’s. He ended up severing tendons and nearly bled to death but was bandaged up by one of the crew. Maybe if Marillion participates in another Cruise To The Edge they can re-enact it with Ian and Pete taking swings at each other. That would be entertaining methinks. Anyway this is one of the better songs on the album, and like many great lyrics, works on multiple levels…this time eluding again to, I believe, his failed marriage. One of the amazing things about Hogarth as a singer and lyricist is his willingness to publicly reveal his inner demons and most personal thoughts. It is all extremely revealing, sometimes to an almost uncomfortable level, like you are peeking through someone’s windows to reveal things only they know. It sometimes feels like emotional exorcism and on songs like this one it is remarkably affecting. I love the line “And the wound was in every lousy song on the radio”. It has a double interpretation both referring to love songs that no one wants to hear when you are in the depths of despair, as well as songs that remind you of The Other Half cause they are shared experiences. Either one is equally shitty. He follows this by screaming “I’ve done everything that can be done” until the song then breaks…halfway through…again….I think I’ve found a pattern. Like the second half of Somewhere Else, this song also has a wicked back end. Some drum machines and plinky plonky keyboards with some moody guitar tones build up to some seriously trippy music that is made for Mary Jane. It has a bit of a This Is the 21st Century vibe and works just as well. There is an interesting line of dialog at the end of the lyrics in the booklet but not on the actual song…”Now there’s some sad things known to the man from the planet Marzipan”. I need to think about this when I do my next review as the song The Man From Planet Marzipan appears on the next album…and it sounds very similar in style…anyone ever notice this and figure out the connection?
Second last song on the album is The Last Century For Man. This is a SLOW song…I mean REALLY SLOW. I really REALLY want to love this song and it is one I keep waiting for it to click and suddenly I’ll love it. It’s been 13 years and it hasn’t happened yet so I’m guessing it will simply remain a near miss for me. It is a political song slighting governments lack of action on the environment (at least that’s what I think it is about). Unfortunately it is wrapped up in a sleepy song that feels like it might be best enjoyed on a Sunday afternoon with a massive hangover. Some people are more forgiving about this song but to me it feels like it was underdeveloped in writing and overcompensated for in the mix. It wants desperately to be a great song but it falters despite a sold effort. To me it lacks the glitter that makes their music great and falls short of the mark it is aiming for.
Last song on the menu is Faith which was a leftover from the Marbles sessions and performed 5 years prior at the second Marillion Weekend in 2003. Like most of the material on this album it has only been played a handful of times live (other than the title track and The Other Half). It is a sweet little acoustic guitar based song that ends the album on a loving note. It is beautifully sung by Hogarth and starts out sounding like something that could be off of Tea For The Tillerman by Cat Sevens. It also very reminiscent of Made Again from Brave. It picks up part way through in a similar manner, moving the song into a bit of a skipping beat. It doesn’t totally take off into the stratosphere the way Made Again does but it is a solid song, on possibly the band’s most inconsistent album of their career. The other problem with Faith is that it almost feels out of place on the record. Like it was stuck on at the end partly to try to give the album some closure but I’m guessing also because it didn’t really fit anywhere else without seriously affecting the pacing and flow. It is a song that actually works better in isolation than on the album itself. I wonder if this was actually the song the band had originally planned on releasing in January of 2006 but then decided against. It would have been the one that was most likely closest to completion at that time. I guess we’ll never know…unless Lucy steps in to confirm or deny my guess.
There were two additional songs that ended up on the two versions of the Thankyouwhoeveryou Are CD singles. Both began as noted, during the Marbles sessions. Circular Ride is not bad. Not stellar but it has its fans. Nothing seminal. It does have accordion and acoustic guitar if that’s your thing. It reminds me bit of a lesser version of something like 80 Days or An Accidental Man from This Strange Engine and has been performed exactly four times live. Say The Word is much better. It is a lovely song that in my opinion could be traded out for several songs on the album to better effect. In fact I would go as far as to say that it would have made a better final song than Faith with respect to flow and feel. It really deserves a spot on the record and would have added a different feel to it. I wonder if they ended up with two songs that both felt like album closers and had to pick one…and ended up choosing Faith instead. It is well worth checking out if you can find it. It is one of the few Marillion songs that has never been performed live.
Somewhere Else is an album that deeply divides fans. It is often cited as many people’s least favourite, or closer to the bottom of their ranking of Marillion albums, despite peaking at 24 in the UK album charts. Both singles did OK but not stellar. Some people firmly stand behind the album as one of their best. I’m somewhere Between You And Me on this one. While it is certainly not a terrible album, by any standards, it is definitely one that has moments of greatness and moments of mediocrity, despite appreciating it more as time has gone on. It has simply never transitioned from good to great, for me. I keep hoping it will grow on me more than it has. It isn’t exactly a swing and a miss but it is far from a home run. It is more like a ground rule double…which for non-baseball fans is a reference to advancing two bases when the ball is hit within fair play but then bounces out of the field into the stands or beyond the outfield wall. I’m trying to throw in some baseball references, not because I’m a baseball fan, but because they bring up baseball on their next album and I’m priming the audience. It does go to show, however, that a longer gestation time for writing and recording doesn’t necessarily always yield a diamond. The next album, Happiness Is The Road, would be completed much faster (for Marillion), being a double CD that would be released just 18 months after Somewhere Else. Much like Afraid Of Sunlight’s short turn around, this one would also be another great achievement, in my opinion.
Recommended Listening: The Other Half, Somewhere Else, A Voice From The Past, No Such Thing, The Wound, Faith, Say The Word
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