Marillion.com

marillion.com
Studio album by Marillion
Released 18 October 1999
Recorded December 1998 – August 1999 at The Racket Club in Buckinghamshire, England
Genre Progressive rock, neo-progressive rock, alternative rock, pop rock
Length 62:28
Label Castle Communications
Producer Marillion, Steven Wilson
Marillion chronology

Radiation
(1998)
marillion.com
(1999)
Anoraknophobia
(2001)
Front cover of marillion.co.uk
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
ProgressiveWorld.net [2]

marillion.com is the eleventh studio album by British rock band Marillion, released in 1999. It was the last of three albums in three consecutive years that Marillion released on a contract with Castle Communications between being dropped by EMI Records in 1995 and eventually going independent in the 2000s. It was the first Marillion studio album to fail to reach UK Top 40, peaking at No. 53 and staying on the chart for one week.[3] It was also the first Marillion album from which no singles were released officially. However, "Deserve" was released as a promo single, and "Rich" served as a radio single in Brazil. There was also a video made for the track "Deserve", featuring tour and backstage footage.

marillion.com was self-produced with additional production from Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson on five out of nine tracks. The last track, "House", features a dance (trip-hop) influence and had the working title "the Massive Attack song".[4] The band would go on to explore this territory on their next album Anoraknophobia. Among fans, the album was received more favourably than its predecessor, but it still belongs to their least popular work; in particular, the track "Built-in Bastard Radar" is considered to be one of their worst ever by many fans.

The album's title is a reference to Marillion's then-new approach in using the internet to communicate with their fans, and in particular to ensure the financing of projects, which would later become known as "crowdfunding". In 1997, fans had funded a US tour which Castle Communications had refused to support, and the next album, Anoraknophobia would be completely financed by pre-orders, making the band independent from record company support, except for distribution. The line "thank God for the internet" from the track "Interior Lulu" (although used ironically in the original context) can also be read as a reference to the band's internet activities, and was in fact used as a slogan later. While preparing the album, the band's management invited fans to send them passport photographs and 732 of these were then used to make up the artwork for the booklet.

The songs "Tumble Down the Years" and "Interior Lulu" were recorded and mixed during the recording sessions for Radiation (1998). It was decided not to include the tracks on that album as the band thought they were incomplete.[5]

Marillion made a companion disc to marillion.com, which was named marillion.co.uk and was available for free to everyone who bought the album. The companion disc had a collection of tracks from various live and demo releases, as well as a short interview video (which was originally from a press kit for the album). For several years, marillion.co.uk was regularly updated with newer songs. As a physical item, it is now out of print, but the most recent version from 2005 remains available to download from Marillion's website.[6]

Track listing

All music composed by Marillion.

No. TitleLyrics Length
1. "A Legacy"  John Helmer 6:16
2. "Deserve"  Steve Hogarth 4:23
3. "Go!"  Hogarth 6:11
4. "Rich"  Hogarth 5:43
5. "Enlightened"  Hogarth 5:00
6. "Built-in Bastard Radar"  Helmer 4:52
7. "Tumble Down the Years"  Helmer 4:34
8. "Interior Lulu"  Hogarth, Helmer 15:14
9. "House"  Hogarth 10:15
Total length:
62:28

Credits

Marillion
Additional personnel
Production

Chart positions

Year Chart Position
1999 UK Albums Chart 53[3]
German Albums Chart 55[7]
Netherlands Albums Chart 40[8]

References

External links