Customer Reviews

Clutch at Straws

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Though I am gradually beginning to appreciate some of the work from the present-day lineup, Marillion were a lot more interesting with Fish (Derek Dick) at the helm, in my opinion. I find it grievous to have to admit that the original lineup will most likely never reform (per Fish's comments found in the inlay of the remastered Clutching at Straws album viewed on this page). Note to the reader: There is a good reason why I'm sharing my personal bias with you. Read on.

First of all, the job of remastering and generally cleaning up the original CAS album is quite good. One should listen to this album with headphones. You can hear Kelly passionately striking the keys to "Warm Wet Circles" with crystal clarity, which makes that moment all the more profound, honest and beautiful. The sound of the rest of the album is improved to provide the listener with a noticeable difference in clarity compared to the former CD transfers.

If you like Clutching at Straws, you must get this set.

Secondly, to call the second CD "interesting" would be a gross understatement. Seven of the tracks are from either the Clutching at Straws sessions or the 88' sessions with Fish (when they were laboring over making another album). You'll find a recognizable guitar solo in "Beaujolais Day", familiar Fish lyrics (and a really good song) within "Story From a Thin Wall" and what I think is one of those rare simple songs that works so well simply because it's 'so sincere' (to borrow from Gentle Giant), "Exile on Princes Street." And there's more...get it.

Although I love this CD, it always leaves me a bit depressed. When I listen, I can't help but wonder what Marillion could have done had Fish not left the band. It does, however, give me a better understanding and appreciation of the second Marillion lineup (with Hogarth). No longer will I wonder how the band went the direction it did after the departure of Fish.

I met Fish once. Very strange and complex person. I didn't really know how to take him, to be honest. I did see a sincerity in him and can say that he's a good guy. Still waiting for him to once again fuse that passion and potential with the great band called Marillion.

I can dream, can't I?

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...

I believe it's never easy for a band the return to studio after an album with such a success and acclamation as 1985' masterpiece "Misplaced Childhood" had. Marillion were no exception to that. As the big poet tells on the booklet, he had a different view from the rest of the band about the course Marillion should take from then on. As an ultimate consequence of this disunion never solved, Fish would take the decision to leave the band during the "Clutching At Straws" promotion tour. Joining these facts with Fish's difficult period at the time ("And my advise is if you maintain this lifestyle, you won't reach 30" - as Dr. Finlay warns in the "Torch Song"), it's even more significant that their fourth studio album resulted so perfectly, at the same level of quality as their previous 3 original studio records.
Back in the year of release (1987), it was not difficult for Marillion to get the proper promotion everywhere. "Incommunicado", the 1st single that came out of the album, marked my entrance to their music - making it eternally special for me. Not the traditional Marillion sounding but with Fish's sense of humour well present on the lyrics - and also on the video.
The sequence of the first 3 tracks, Hotel Hobbies - Warm Wet Circles - That Time of the Night, is in my opinion the best opening of a Marillion album. Warm Wet Circles is in fact one of the most beautiful songs I've ever known in my life... just as "Sugar Mice". Lyrics with such sensitivity and power only a few can match with, and music at the same level of accomplishment. "White Russian", "Slainte Mhaht" and "The Last Straw" can also be gathered by the lyrics' direction - an expression of Fish's discontent over different aspects of the society. All these 3 songs are great and resulted very well live. "Going Under" and "The Torch Song" can also be gathered but for one sad reality on Fish's life those days - the alcohol among other things. "Just For The Record" is the only song I don't rate at the same level of all others.
Finally, one last thing: the 2CDs special version is highly recommended in this case, with lots of previously unreleased material from the band I enjoy the most.

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.

I played my Genesis records to death over ten years ago so I'm delighted to have recently discovered a band that sounds so similar. Fish's voice even sounds like Gabriel's, though at times he also sounds like Phil Collins and Pete Townshend. This is their best album with Fish in the band; the material is stronger than that on 'Misplaced Childhood' (also good) and shows the band was maturing. If a guitar can gently weep, it outright sobs on Warm Wet Circles-- 'she nervously undressed..' Powerful keyboards abound. The bridge in 'Just for the record' reminds me of 'Slippermen'. 'Just for the record' and 'Incomuunicado' would have fit nicely on the radio back when Genesis and Phil ruled the airwaves. That's not to say Marillion is just a band that sounds like Genesis. At times they are more powerful to me than Genesis ever became. The music and Fish's lyrics are filled with a darkness and desperation perhaps only approached during the Gabriel era of Genesis. If you are a Genesis fan you'll appreciate this album at a time when this type of music has long since disappeared.

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.....

This album would be the last for Fish in Marillion and did he finish well. This album is great every song from beginning to end probably their strongest with him in the band. This album showed the band maturing and truly at comfort zone with their sound to the point where they made it better and stronger. Top flight musicians in their element playing some of the best music of their life. It was a great run but both have managed to move on Fish(solo)and Marillion with Steve H. both sounding great but it is nice to remember when they were one.

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.

There was a huge amount of pressure in the Marillion camp to top the worldwide success of the "Misplaced Childhood" effort. In band fighting, egotism and large amounts of drugs and alcohol didn't make for a very healthy environment for the recording process of "Clutching at Straws". What was created though is what I would consider to be Marillion's most stunning cd. You could really tell where Fish was at that point in his life as many of the songs are about alcohol abuse and excessive drinking. "Going Under" and "Torch Song" are great examples of this. But there are some other excellent tunes on this cd including "Sugar Mice" and "White Russian". A darker Marillion effort but I think their most focused effort. The bonus disk is actually outakes from the follow-up effort they had started working on after Clutching. Though the quality of the 2nd cd is not great the song writing still is and if this had been put out as the next cd it probably would have been another top-notch effort from Fish and company. Fish left after "Clutching" and the rest is bridge under the water. Don't cheat yourself. Spend the extra cash and get the 2 cd set.

Anyone who has had perhaps a bit too much to drink over time can relate to this deeply autobiographical masterpiece...Fish is one of the best vocalists and lyricists I have ever had the pleasure to enjoy....and the band is one of the tightest...the drummer and bassist set the tone complimented by savvy interjections of guitar and keyboards. I personally own at least 500 Cds spanning over 35 years of music and I feel that Clutching at Straws is one of my best. My favorite cut is White Russian.