Marillion.com
| marillion.com | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 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 | ||||
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Front cover of marillion.co.uk |
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| 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. | Title | Lyrics | 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
- Steve Hogarth – voice, backing vocals, additional piano and percussion
- Steve Rothery – guitars
- Mark Kelly – keyboards
- Peter Trewavas – bass, backing vocals, additional guitar on "Tumble Down the Years"
- Ian Mosley – drums, percussion
- Additional personnel
- Ben Castle – saxophone on "Deserve"
- Neil Yates – trumpet on "House" and "Deserve"
- Andy Rotherham – additional hand-clapping on "Rich"
- Production
- Marillion – producer
- Steven Wilson – additional production and mixing engineer on tracks 1, 3, 5, 6 & 8
- Nick Davis – mixing engineer on tracks 2, 4 & 7
- Trevor Vallis – mixing engineer on track 9
- Stewart Every – recording engineer
- Carl Glover – photography
- Justine Leyland – laptop dancing
- Niels van Iperen – group photography
- Bill Smith Studio – sleeve
- Rod Smallwood – management
Chart positions
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | UK Albums Chart | 53[3] |
| German Albums Chart | 55[7] | |
| Netherlands Albums Chart | 40[8] |
References
- ↑ Hill, Gary. "marillion.com overwiew". Allmusic.
- ↑ Sollow, Stephanie. "marillion.com overwiew". ProgressiveWorld.net.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Marillion chart positions in the UK". The Official Charts Company.
- ↑ http://www.bigbangmag.com/cmarillion4.php
- ↑ "Steve Hogarth's interview, September, 1999". www.marillion.com.
- ↑ "marillion.co.uk page on the band's official website.".
- ↑ "Marillion albums chart positions in Germany". Media Control GfK International.
- ↑ "Marillion chart positions in the Netherlands". MegaCharts.
External links
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