Disco de Marillion: “Clutching at Straws [UK Bonus CD]”

I'm always changing my mind as to whether I prefer this record or 'Misplaced childhood'. In the end, they're equally great and different enough not to cancel each other out.

This was Fish's last recording with the band (they had a not so friendly breakup after it), and surely demonstrates how the band matured. They'd always been considered as masters performing their instruments, and Fish's lyrics were like poetry, but it was in this album that they seemed to gel more perfectly and come together completely. While it's not a 'concept' album, themes of depression, abandonment, darkness, and failure all have their place in it and are intertwined throughout. It shows them at their 'pop-est' with 'Incommunicado' (talks about celebrity and its effects), their most introspective with 'Sugar mice' (divorce) and their most mentally troubled with 'Going under' and 'Torch song'. It also includes one of their crowd favorites, 'Slainte Mhath' and one of their all time classics in 'Warm wet circles', as well as 'White russian'.

As for disc two, it includes a series of outtakes and demos of what was to become their fifth studio album (didn't happen). It is really interesting, not only for the chance of listening to never released material, but for the fact that it's a strange mixture of the band's first album with Steve Hogarth (h) as lead vocalist (Seasons end) and of Fish's first solo album (Vigil in a wilderness of mirrors). It's very trippy to listen to the music of Marillion songs, while hearing Fish's solo lyrics...

If Marillion's lead singer Fish used previous album Misplaced Childhood as a catharsis for his relationship turmoils, then he attempted to exorcise his substance abuse demons with Straws. The conclusion for this concept album isn't as sunny as its predecessor; a fact which makes this a somewhat more realistic and concrete album.

The album was preceded by leadoff single "Incommunicado" which with its nauseatingly fast pace is not only the weakest song on the album, but one of the lesser tunes of the entire Marillion catalog. The slower tempo "Sugar Mice" was the best bet for a single (eventually released as the third single) with its memorably aching peak into the mind of a man who leaves his family because he can't beat the bottle.

However, the strongest and most interesting song on the album is "Warm Wet Circles." This intriguing choice as a second single opens with the lines "On promenades where drunks propose to lonely arcade mannequins/Where ceremonies pause at the jeweler's shop display/Feigning casual silence in strained romantic interludes/Till they commit themselves to the muted journey home." Not exactly your average toe-tapper. As if the lyrics weren't powerful enough, the song is stuffed with "warm wet circle" imagery, including a wedding ring, the sweat left behind by a glass, and a bullet wound.

Like Childhood, this album plays very autobiographically. One senses that the success of that album was a blessing and a curse; the added stress of extra touring pushed Fish to alcohol abuse and a sense that maybe there aren't answers to everything after all. The latter message is bleakly painted by album closer "The Last Straw:" "We're clutching at straws/I'm still drowning."

In the same song, he sings "Those problems seem to arise/The ones you never really thought of/The feeling you get is similar to something like drowning." He also proclaims, "We're terminal cases that keep taking medicine/Pretending the end isn't quite that near." The lines were eerie foreshadowing to the end of an era; it would be Fish's last album with the band.

For real fanatics of Marillion and Fish, the bonus disc is a must, featuring songs that would develop into Fish's solo project as well as songs for the next Marillion album.

Definitivamente, es la època de oro de esta tremenda banda...Musicalmente, poderosos....la voz de Fish incontenible...La letra de las canciones, insuperable...sòlo comparable a la faceta no comercial de Genesis en su mejor ciclo (hasta Seconds Out).....Conjunatmente con Misplaced Childhood, La Gazza Ladra y Made Again...lo mejor... Obviamente, el que tenga este CD serìa un bobo si lo presta.......

This is the best epoque of Marillion...simply a masterpiece. Great music, Fish at his best....the lyrics...only you can compare this music with the non-commercial musical production of Genesis (until Seconds Out)....This CD with Misplaced Childhood, La Gazza Ladra and Made Again...Marillion at it`s best....You have to be a dummy if you let away this CD from your hands.....

I recently rediscovered Marillion after having collected their Fish era discs as they were released in the eighties. The music holds up really well, and "Clutching At Straws" is probably the strongest of the band's first four studio discs (the other contender being "Misplaced Childhood").

It is worth the investment to pick up this two disc remastered set. The first disc contains the orginal album, and the sound is vastly improved. Instruments are sharply defined, vocals and sound effects stunningly clear. The bonus disk includes a few remixed or demo versions of Clutching songs, along with some decent outtakes from this period. Of particular interest are a couple of songs that would go on to be used on Marillion's following album ("Season's End"). Hearing Fish sing songs eventually done by Steve Hogarth on "Season's End" makes you wonder what the band would have been like if they would have taken and year off and then refined this material with Fish still on board.

The liner notes include fascinating reflections on this period from band memeber and others involved in the project.

The 4th studio album; and one of the best! Marking the accumulation of many years of hard work just before the band members decided to go in different directions.

The change in direction following this album leads to two more classic albums, Seasons End & Vigil in the Wilderness [both worth checking out] with hints of these in the Bonus CD available in the re-mastered edition.

The album does have a theme based on a character of Torch, on a train wreck of life, [maybe more autobiographical at times?]producing perfectly gelled lyrics and instruments.

As you go with Torch on his depressing journey you come across the exceptionally outstanding tracks like Warm Wet Circles, Going Under, Incommunicado, Sugar Mice & The Last Straw. [Every track is exceptional!]

This is defiantly an album to add to a collection and when played, just listen to the lyrics for a dark, emotional journey!