Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Marillion
Label: Castle Communications
Release: 1998
Length: 48:17
Rating: 3/5
Art rock champions Marillion, Britain’s best-kept musical secret, found themselves in the middle of a minor identity crisis while making their tenth studio album »Radiation«. They wanted to ‘modernize’ their sound at all costs, in line with some of the musical trends of the day, and make a pretty radical break from the previous album, the excellent »This Strange Engine« (1997). The former leaders of the new wave of progressive rock, who counted prog giants led by Genesis, Pink Floyd, Camel and so on among their key influences, suddenly took britpop, alt rock and indie rock bands as their role models for a short while, headed by then-darlings of trendy music circles Radiohead. That was a proper twist of irony, considering these were mostly bands that count none other than Marillion among their main influences.
The band members still say in interviews today that »Radiation« is more or less a ‘weird album’ that they aren’t all that proud of. They don’t mean by that that it’s bad or that they’re ashamed of it, but they admit that it didn’t get them what they originally wanted – to develop a modern sound that would be interesting to the radio stations of the day, win a new base of fans along the way, and still hold on to a recognizable and unique Marillion songwriting stamp. How off the mark things were back then is shown by the fact that on the »Radiaton« tour they played a cover of Radiohead’s »Fake Plastic Trees«. It wasn’t the most bizarre and absurd concert cover of their career (that ‘honor’ goes to their take on the Britney Spears hit »Toxic«), but the move still drove away plenty of longtime fans, who started seriously wondering whether the band had lost its compass. After Fish’s departure, Marillion swiftly dispatched the whole neo-prog label, took risks with all sorts of previously unexplored sonic experiments and influences, and it all somehow paid off in the end. With »Radiation« they hit an impenetrable wall for a short while, since it was clear they had started to doubt their own songwriting abilities a little, something they thankfully got over quickly.
Even though »Radiation« is the ‘quirkiest’ Marillion studio effort ever, with a few songs that can be declared the worst of their entire career, it still has some excellent tracks that give the album a decent level of quality and prove what they were capable of when they stopped looking over their shoulders at the trends of the day. Among the highlights of »Radiation«, after the short acoustic overture »Costa del Slough«, is without a doubt the opening energy catalyst »Under the Sun«, an epic on par with their very best, bursting at the seams under the weight of countless bombastic arrangements, with Hogarth’s vocal in the triumphant chorus reaching a new level of magnificence. Mark Kelly doesn’t hold back here, laying down rainbow-colored layers of organ and synth textures, while Steve Rothery’s guitar improvisations sound as epic as they come.
After that art rock evergreen, things on »Radiation« sadly go downhill fast with the below-average alt/indie rocker »The Answering Machine«, where the main aim was obviously to build an impenetrable wall of sound and, if possible, trample as much of the melodic potential as they could, so they’d end up sounding as ‘un-Marillion’ as possible. Rothery’s guitar is completely subordinated here to electronic-sounding digital samples and an almost total rhythmic cacophony. Even the best of them sometimes properly ‘screw it up’. The complex power ballad »Three Minute Boy« comes off much better, with the band showing off their incredible ability to ramp up an intense atmosphere from second to second, and H’s narrative vocal over piano and acoustic guitar chords playing a key role. Rothery’s electric guitar eventually comes to life here too with punchy passages and is once again practically in perfect harmony with Kelly’s space-rock-tinged synth textures, which, along with clever rhythmic twists, carries on all the way to a satisfying finish.
This solid effort is followed by a song that’s a bit below the usual Marillion standards. »Now She’ll Never Know« is a melancholic, hushed love ballad almost at the level of ‘a cappella’, where H’s fragile vocal is accompanied by delicate acoustic guitar arrangements courtesy of bassist Pete Trewavas, with fragmented synth whims thrown in as well. The central melody is lovely, but thanks to the barely audible and repetitive acoustic arrangements the whole thing quickly gets boring. The very solid »These Chains« comes off noticeably better. It was even released as a single, even though it has a pretty similar melancholic atmosphere to its predecessor. Compared to it, it has a lot more ‘balls’, also thanks to a good orchestral arrangement, epic guitar soloing and a mighty chorus. Only the Good Lord knows what Marillion wanted to say with the awfully dull and uninspired blues rock ballad »Born to Run«, which will go down in the annals as one of the most misguided experiments of their career. The whole thing plays out like some slowed-down black-and-white movie, while Rothery, who sounds like a cross between Eric Clapton and David Gilmour here, just doesn’t fit the role of a blues rock guitarist, no matter how hard he tries. The only bright spot is H’s vocal, which, whatever the musical backdrop, can hardly ever come out sounding bad.
It should be said that the closing stretch of »Radiation« is one of its better moments. That goes above all for the ambitious art rock experiment »Cathedral Wall«, in which they manage to smartly combine ‘both worlds’ – their rich songwriting and improvisational skills, rooted in the classic school of progressive rock, with some of the rock trends of the nineties – and shape a truly epic piece crowned with a rich multi-voiced chorus. Majestic synth curtains are joined by punchy guitar passages and Mosley’s massive drum fills, while the hugely varied atmosphere keeps shifting thanks to countless digital effects. At the end, the central »These Chains« verse comes back around once more. The longer ambient requiem »A Few Words for the Dead«, yet another rather unusual but still interesting and successful experiment, where Marillion try their hand mainly at ambient rock, is an intriguing pacifist piece that’s more than obviously aimed against the arms lobby.
»Radiation« is still seen today as a pretty ‘quirky’ album that, thanks to its experiments with some of the popular sonic trends of the nineties and its generally rather ‘sleepy’ atmosphere, is fully to the liking of only a few Marillion devotees. Like quite a few studio albums from the H era, especially after 1995, it takes a lot of time and patience to listen to before all its good sides reveal themselves. And there are enough of them that, despite some of the aforementioned not-so-successful songs from when they wanted to ride the trendy challenges of the day, »Radiation« is far from a bad album. In fact, Marillion aren’t ‘capable’ of making a bad album, and »Radiation« is just a slightly too radical departure from the sonic and songwriting elements they’re best at.
Line-up
Steve Hogarth – vocals, additional piano, percussion
Steve Rothery – guitar
Pete Trewavas – bass guitar, backing vocals, acoustic guitar on “Now She’ll Never Know”
Mark Kelly – keyboards, backing vocals
Ian Mosley – drums, percussion
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Jo Rothery – backing vocals on “Three Minute Boy”
Vicki Price – backing vocals on “Three Minute Boy”
Production
Marillion and Stewart Every
Tracklist
1. Costa del Slough
2. Under the Sun
3. The Answering Machine
4. Three Minute Boy
5. Now She’ll Never Know
6. These Chains
7. Born to Run
8. Cathedral Wall
9. A Few Words for the Dead
