Customer Reviews

Brave

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

When I finally "broke down" and gave Marillion an open berth to my ears and lobes, I didn't know where to start. I let a friend who had been into them for years guide me, and I wound up buying "Brave", "Season's End", and "Clutching at Straws" all at once. On first listens, I would say that "Brave" was my favorite of the three.
Now it's over 3 years hence, and all 3 CD's have grown on me immensely. However, when all is said and done, "Brave" is still my favorite. I don't quite get the debate over Fish vs. Steve Hogarth as to who is the better singer. I think it's all in the material they worked with. Both are strong. Now wash your hands.

...Unless you are willing to give it time to sink in. This is one of those 'Concept' albums that few listeners will get instant gratification from. When I first recieved "Brave", I gave it the mandatory three spins before I even tried to come to any conclusions. Well, I decided that I did in fact like several songs/musical passages, but as a whole, it didn't quite strike me as much as more acsessible releases from the band such as "Afraid of Sunlight", "Seasons End" or "Holidays in Eden". So I ended up 'shelving' this release for several months----my mistake! After viewing the awesome "Marbles" DVD (deluxe edition), the material from "Brave" really captured my attention...enough so that I 'unshelved' the CD and gave it several more listens. Lucky Me...thats exactly what it took for me to see the light..."the bright lights and the noise". Now I can honestly say that I like everything about this album (with the possible exception of "Paper Lies"). Personal highlights are "Bridge", "Living With the Big Lie", "Goodbye to All That", "Alone Again in the Lap of Luxury", "The Great Escape" and "Made Again"....but again, I like the album as a 'Whole'. Now, as other reviewers have stated, this isn't a 'sunny', 'happy' listening experience---it is definitely a dark, somber story of a tortured (misplaced?) childhood. I would agree with another reviewer here...this album can instantly bring you 'down' and be somewhat depressing, so its not an album you will want to put on just anytime. But when your in that kind of mood, this will take you to a wonderful, Strange place that few albums can. 4.5 Stars...Strongly recommended if your willing!

If you want to get full enjoyment out of this CD, then do what the band suggests in the liner notes, "Play it loud with the lights off", however, I suggest that you also wear headphones, as there are many very quiet moments that might escape your ears if you don't. Like the opening line, "A Bridge is not a high place..." uttered by the girl before the fog horns start blowing. This whole CD is an entire experience, and you have to listen to it that way. There's no skipping songs or just listening to the first couple of songs and then shutting it off. It is the rarest of concept albums, the one that follows its concept from beginning to end. A lot of people felt it was too emotional, too dark and creepy, to listen to someone's life play out from one bad moment to the next, right from birth to the moment she jumps off the bridge and beyond. Well, Marillion shed their pop sound of Holidays In Eden sure enough on this outing. Not to say that Holidays In Eden is a bad CD, on the contrary, but the tone is completely different on this album. It's able to hold my interest from moment to moment, as the music is so dynamic, soft and slow one moment and loud as hell and frantic the next. H's lyrics and singing are fantastic here. He certainly came of age on this album, leaving Holidays and Season's End in the dust. I don't think I can say enough nice things about this CD. One thing you'll want to do if you aren't sure what to expect upon first listening, is to listen all the way through without anything going on in the background, at a time when it's just you and the music, and use those headphones, as, like I said, there are many little bits you'll miss otherwise, and make sure you have a hanky or a box of tissues, 'cause if you don't cry at the end, you're either a Vulcan or an android. The emotion of these songs is intense, to say the least. Another item you might like to check out is the DVD of their performance of Brave in its entirety at a band convention a few years back. H's stage presence and performance is inspired. It can be found online at Marillion dot com or on ebay. You can also find the album done live on their Made Again CD. I hope it does for you what it has for me. Marillion is that band that most everyone either gets or doesn't, and if you get this CD, you'll more than likely get Marillion. What other band can actually ask their fans to buy their next CD before it's been recorded?! This band's done it twice now, and the two releases have been great, so if you know of another band that has a fan base that rabid for the next CD to buy it before it's recorded, then I'd like to know about them. If you're a music lover, do yourself a favor and at least listen to anything recorded by anyone associated with this band. You'll enjoy yourself very much.

So after CLUTCHING AT STRAWS, singer Fish left the band. In comes Steve Hogarth for 1989s SEASON'S END, a terrific balance of staying true to their art and moving forward. Next came HOLIDAYS IN EDEN, an obvious attempt by he band and the record company to go for popular appeal. HOLIDAYS has some terrific material, and I would that all pop had its level of musical integrity. So what did the band do next? A friggin concept album--and guess what? They scored a huge hit with the fans. BRAVE is what Marillion listeners were waiting for since MISPLACED CHILDHOOD. BRAVE is moody, depressing, tragic, touching and rocking. It may make you cry. It certainly will hold your attention if you let ot sink in and if you really listen. I bought the CD upon its release many years ago. I listened to it several times and some tracks caught my interest while others did not. That's fine. Many years later I began to give the album as a whole more attention. The full picture began to develop for me. Generally, BRAVE will show up as one of the top Marillion albums among fans, and it deserves to be.

This is a conceptual album, I have to admit that when it came out, I was still stuck in Fish's era. My opinion at the moment was that Marillion could never create an album as strong as Misplaced Childhood. This was a mistake, Brave is a masterpiece and the ending track "The great escape" is one of the greatest from the band, after all these years, I can tell that this is one of my favorite Marillion's album, if not my favorite.
Highly recommanded for any progressive music fans !

After Marillion moved in a generally more commercial direction for their previous album "Holidays In Eden" the band did an about face and put out "Brave" which is one of the most uncommercial albums of their career. "Brave" is a concept album that tells the story of a runaway girl who attempts suicide by jumping off a bridge. The album tells her life story. The album was augumemted by a film that also fleshed out the tale. The music on this disc is for the most part dark and brooding. It tends to be an album that Marillion fans tend to either rank as one of their best ever or as one of their most pretentious. It is another one of those discs that had to grow on me over time. When it first came out I thought the concept was solid, but the music was somewhat lacking. The beginning and the end of the album were great, but it bogged down a bit in the middle. Over the years I kept coming back to "Brave" from time to time and appreciate it more with each re-visit. This is not at album that you listen to while driving down the road in your car. "Brave" is an album that you listen to on a good stereo or with headphones while you can sit down and really concentrate on it. The individual tracks don't work that well by themselves (with a few exceptions), but taken as a whole this is a brilliant piece of work. As mentioned prior, the majority of the music on this disk moody and dark. There are a few heavier rock sections such as "Hard As Love", but you are not going to find a lot of the more high energy Marillion on this one. The final section of the album consisting of "Brave", "The Great Escape", "Last Of You", "Falling From The Moon", and "Made Again" is simply gorgeous contains everything that makes Marillion great. "Brave" is not an album for casual listening. It needs to be consumed as the whole that it is. The album may not grab you at first, but give it time and you may find it to be a very rewarding listen.

Concept albums are curse words to the music world today. Or so they say. Most people would say who cares, as long as the album is good. Well, Brave is not good, it is a total MASTERPIECE. The album will make rock, make you think, and make you cry. The whole album is a storyline about a girl with a rough childhood and attempts suicide. The music of the album fits the lyrics like a glove. This is lyrically Marillion's best work. Put your headphones on and listen to this with lyric booklet in front of you. Listen to the stand outs like the pulsating rocker Hard as love (definitly a song to get your frustrations out.), to the beauty and fanfare of the song Great Escape, and the beauty of Made Again, along with the other great songs on this album. you will be hooked onthis album after the first listen. ENJOY!

The blast of a boat's horn pulls the listener in for a 70 minute rocket ride that doesn't conclude until the final note fades away on "Brave," Marillion's seventh studio release. In this conceptual masterpiece that serves as an ample update on The Who's classic "Quadrophenia," Marillion spin the tale of a young girl whose trauma has literally led her to the edge...the railing of the Severn Bridge. The myriad situations that drove her to this point are explored in brilliant fashion as the band shows its ability to transform whispers into screams at a moment's notice on songs such as "The Big Lie," "Hard as Love," "Runaway Girl," "Made Again," "Falling from the Moon," "The Opium Den" and the haunting title track, "Brave." Guitarist Steve Rothary and keyboards standout Mark Kelly are at their best around Hogarth's vocals that delve into the psyche of the story's main character. Bassist Pete Trewavas and drummer Ian Mosley fill out the band's most critically acclaimed album of the post-Fish era. Listeners who like to read along or who enjoy the conceptual work of artists such as Pink Floyd, Gabriel-era Genesis, Jethro Tull, Rush, ELP, The Who and Yes will enjoy this album if they give it a chance.

"Brave" means to Marillion what "The Wall" means to Pink Floyd. That is, a beautiful concept-album based on a whole story. In that case, a strange case of a runaway girl found in a bridge by the police. The whole record is a kind of "flashback" in which we recostruct her history and the reasons that lead her to that strange end.
Just for the record, the concept is inspired by a REAL story that happened in England; it seems to be that the police found a girl on a bridge and she was in a kind of shock so she couldn't remember anything:
(" When they ask her name/Would she please explain/She simply chooses to say nothing "-Bridge)
We have to remember as well that Marillion already had a fantastic concept album,"Misplaced childhood" and "Clutching at straws"(altough isn't really a concept album it has its "spirit")
In the first "real" song, "Living with the big lie", we find out how sick of the world our heroin is.It has some great lines,and despite Steve Hogarth is not Fish in terms of lyric-writing, he can sing twice as good as the scotsman.
In "runaway" we also know she is escaping from a broken home,and besides the pride,she is running away because of his father was molesting her.She have a quite tough and dark reality,living in misery.It seems that she is losing the sense of reality, and desperately trying to seek for some peace of mind.
In "HArd as love", one of the rare hard-rocking moments of the album (it's a relaxing album indeed),she is saying that her heart is closed so you can't reach into.She seems very hurt.
One of my favorite songs of the album,and by the way,one of the most memorable Marillion-songs,is "Alone again...".I have to really fight back the tears when the guitar melody appears.It is a beautiful sad song!She remembers how miserable was her former life,and that she won't forget what they did to her.She feels ok to be away,but is far from being happy ("I don't remember the last time I cried/I don't remember much except lies")
"Paper lies" is perhaps the weakest moment of the album(the second "rock"song of it).It seems that media want to take profit of her pain,publishing some sensationalist news.
Finally, in the last songs, it looks like she is trying to commit suicide (it's not clear for me) but something or someone release her("And it's all because you made me see/What is false and what is true/Like the inside and the outside of me/Is being made again by you"-Made again).By the way,another perfect song.
In conclusion, this is a beautiful album,all its songs are perfectly placed and the action runs smoothly.All the band was really inspired while doing this; they even hired a studio placed in a castle to get in the melancholic mood.You can notice how good team they are.This record and "Grace" by Jeff Buckley are sadness turned into music.
I have a wise advice for you:Don't touch this album unless you are in the appropiated mood.Its darkness can really hurt you and bring you down almost instantantly.The very beginning,with the boat sound and some mellow music starting in,is one of the best starters I've ever listened to.And the end,with "Falling from the moon" and "made again",a perfect way of closing.I ALWAYS cry whenever I listen to the former.The voice of Hogarth and the guitar arpeggios put me in a depresive groove.But sometimes is good to cry,don't you think so?
Thanks for your patience and buy this record now,you will return again and again to this dreamy and sad world depicted in "Brave"

This album is a musical work of art, undoutably the most emotional music Marillion (or any other artist for that matter) has ever produced.

80 amazing minutes of vivid and diversly haunting yet aslo rocking music which takes the listerner on a journey in and around the mind of an emotionally fragile woman who begins a mental downward spiral from her birth to her death. The whole time, you never really know if she is suffering the physical and emotional abuses that have scarred her or whether she is just metally imbalanced, causing her to have horrible flashbacks that may never have taken place, her life story is a tear jerker.

Marillion have stretched the music boundries here on 'Brave' but the real magic comes from the vocal delivery of singer / songwriter Steve Hogarth. His lyrics and voice reach into the human spirit, into the sensitive core of your heart, creating an involuntary compassion for the poor woman who's life this story follows.

Without being pretentious in anyway, Marillion manage to keep the listerners attention for the entirety of this 80 minute album.

There are no albums that I would give 5 stars to but 'Brave' took me to places no other album has.

For the old school Marillion fan of the 80's (Fish period) there is virtually no connection on 'Brave' to their prog-rock past. Being a fan of both periods, I have to admit that Marillion still mess with time signitures but now write songs that would be recieved very well by the general masses if they were just given airplay. Maybe that is their salvation! More like Radiohead or Massive Attack, Marillion's sound is very current yet totally original in style and influence.

'Brave' is a masterpiece of music which I strongly recommended!