Marillion -
Sounds That Can't Be Made


(CD 2012, 74:14, EarMusic)

The tracks:
  1- Gaza(17:30)
  2- Sounds That Can't Be Made(7:10)
  3- Pour My Love(5:58)
  4- Power(6:05)
  5- Montreal(13:59)
  6- Invisible Ink(5:44)
  7- Lucky Man(7:14)
  8- The Sky Above The Rain(10:34)

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Marillion have always been one of my favourite melodic progressive rock bands. They've been written off a couple of times, but they still prevail and have been active in the music scene for thirty-three years now! Their albums haven't always been to my liking; take for example the rather weak albums Radiation (1988), Marillion.com (1999) or Anoraknophobia (2001), but fortunately they always came back with a marvellous album. Marbles (2004) and Happiness Is The Road (2008) are two of my all-time favourite Marillion albums.

Now they returned again with a strong album called Sounds That Can't Be Made. It opens with the impressive and emotional track Gaza; listen carefully to the lyrics of this piece! Gaza is a seventeen-minute epic and a classic Marillion mammoth with lots of diversity and stunning vocals by Steve Hogarth. Other highlights are the second longest song Montreal and The Sky Above The Rain, another long track that ends the album. Only these three amazing pieces of music are already worthwhile buying  this album mainly because of the dazzling guitar solos and melodies by Steve Rothery. He adds the icing on the cake and provides this album a new musical dimension. His guitar solos are unique and very recognizable; I'm glad that he has got more room on this album to excel.

Invisible Ink and Lucky Man are just good rock songs, but they're by far less good than the three epics on this album. The title track, Power and Pour My Love are also typical excellently performed Marillion songs. Conclusion: being a Marillion aficionado I can say that this is one of their finest albums in recent years. It took the band four years, but it has definitely been worth the waiting. I hope they will go on for the coming decennium or so and record more albums like Sounds That Can't Be Made!

**** Martien Koolen (edited by Peter Willemsen)

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