Through Anoraknophobia's eight tracks, Marillion stays very grounded in the present while looking to the future and even giving a nod to the past. Anoraknophobia is an album that is very well set in 2001. Songs such as "Between You and Me," "Map of the World," and "Separated Out" could all be radio hits today. "Between You and Me" is probably the most accessible and catchy song the band has ever written, while not making you feel like you are listening to something pre-programmed to be on the radio.

Long-time fans of the band will find songs such as "This is the 21st Century," "When I Meet God," "The Fruit of the Wild Rose," and "If My Heart Were a Ball It Would Roll Uphill" to have the deep, beautiful textures that Marillion has always been known for. Marillion's music becomes more layered and complex as time goes on, and while they incorporate many new ideas and sounds in their music, it never becomes bogged down. It may just take a couple extra listenings to hear everything that is going on. And if you pay attention, you can't help but smile when you hear a tiny little piece of "Chelsea Monday" from 1983's "Script For a Jester's Tear" album. I won't tell you where it is, I'll let you find it on your own.

Fans and newcomers alike will find a great deal of pleasure comes from Anoraknophobia. It is a Marillion album, and that means it is about the music. Real music. Listen to it loud, with the lights off!

How i wish i could really really like this
First let's get something straight. I am a big Marillion fan. I listen more to the Hogarth era albums than the Fish era albums. I've flown to England for the last two Web UK conventions. But i have a problem. This is the third Marillion album in a row that i just can't get into.

I tried to like Anoraknophobia. I listened to it probably 10 times over the weekend after i got it. It finally occured to me that out of the 7 songs on the cd, i only like 3-1/2 of them. As a fan i'm used to Marillion reinventing themselves after every album or so. If you listen to Holidays In Eden, it sounds nothing like the proceeding album 'Seasons End', while 'Brave' sounds nothing like 'Holidays...' and so on and so forth. In the past few years we were greeted to 'Radiation' and then 'marillion.com (aka radiation part II)which ushered in a new sound to the band. It's obvious that Marillion are trying to sound current. There's nothing wrong with that, where i believe they are failing is the quality of the songs. There is nothing on Anoraknophobia that i haven't heard before whether it is by Marillion or some other band. There are no songs that catch you and don't let go. Recently i listed to 'Afraid of Sunlight' and was reminded how each of the songs on that album just stick in your head. After listening to the new album, i couldn't sing, whistle, or hum any of the melodies because i couldn't remember them.

And that's the problem with this album, it's not memorable. Is it better than a great lot of the music out today, sure, but it pales in comparison to the great music this band has made before.

I SO wanted to like this album ... but...
Marillion ask the fans to help finance the album .. a bold experiment to give them the artistic freedom. I paid in advance and waited hoping for a unique album. The first track comes on .. I hear a potentially classic tune .. then it goes on too long. I listen again and again to the album trying to find something else I like in the album. I find very little. I hear hints of Oasis and other younger bands... Nothing touches my soul the way previous albums have or says to me 'listen to me again this is MARILLION!'

H's comment is spot on... this sounds nothing like Marillion have sounded before. But neither does it sound new or left field. It comes across to me as a somewhat comtrived attempt to produce popular music closer to the mainstream not what I hoped to hear. It isn't totally successful even in that as the prog rock tendencies to drag things out and over-indulge when simplicity at times would have brought a better result.

Don't get me wrong. I like Marillion. I respect their right to do what they do. I respect the right of others to like it when I don't. My personal view is merely that. I await future albums with the hope I can emotionally connect better with them than I do this one.

Marillion Rocks!
Marillion rocks with this, their most recent release, Anorachnophobia. Eight songs proudly display their talent as a whole unit, and as individuals as well. Drummer Ian Mosely shows off his efficiency in the straight forward rocker, Between You And Me (throw in a little Beatlesque slow-down in the middle). Pete Trewavas, bassist, keeps the pace with a kicking line in Quartz. Steve Hogarth, vocalist, is quite intense in When I Meet God and If My Heart Were A Ball, Keyboardist Mark Kelly is awesome in This Is The 21st Century, and Steve Rothery is his usual exceptional self with a mad guitar jam in Fruit Of The Wild Rose. This is a wonderful Marillion album, although I wouldn't lead first time listeners to this, as it is missing the grandiose piece that has showed up on most of their albums. Also missing are the intense mellower numbers--not your typical Marillion album, this is a rocker!!

Don't feel afraid of being different!!
This is Marillion's 12th studio album, but you probably wouldn't notice it. It's a fresh *new* start, and shows the lads once again trying something different -- the only thing that remains the same about Marillion is their will to keep changing!

This album was a sort of experiment made by the band, in which they asked us fans (I was part of it!) to help them by "pre-ordering" the album, even before it was finished. This makes it a truly fan financed project and proves the faith and loyalty that we have for the band.

Getting into the tracks:
'Between you and me': great use of keyboards and of h's voice, very, very h...sounds more like one of his solo tracks
'Quartz': a smooth track, about two people that shouldn't be together. This one should be listened to with the lights off and the volume set at 11!
'Map of the world': the 'problem child' as h puts it, a great, sweet tune, co-written with Nick Van Eede of Cutting Crew fame
'When I meet God': if the band ever wrote a pompous, grand song, this is it (love the guitar and organ!)
'The fruit of the wild rose': am I allowed to not like one track? Yes? Well, this is it...can't put my finger on it, just don't get it
'Separated out': the standard *weird* track, it includes audio form the film 'Freaks' ("we accept her, one of us!")...it centers the *feel* of the album, there's nothing wrong in being different!
'This is the 21st century': an 11 minute beauty. If you listen to this song with headphones, you'll be transported someplace else...makes you fly, I'm telling you!
'If my heart were a ball...': I feel this song as the experiment within the album, can't really label it...slow, hard, guitars, keyboards...it has everything. Takes a while to digest, but when you do...wow! ("do you ever dream of falling?")

Notice that half of the tracks last longer than 9 minutes...!

FYI, the title, 'Anoraknophobia' sorta means that you shouldn't be afraid to be different (have no phobia of being an anorak!!)
A promotional blurb accompanying Marillion's 12th studio album (a venture funded entirely by 12,000 of the band's fans) challenges music journalists to avoid references to progressive rock, Genesis, and dinosaurs in their reviews. "You're all wrong about Marillion, just put it on and listen to it," pleads singer Steve Hogarth. While such sentiments could easily be paraphrased as "You'll be surprised how much this album doesn't sound like us"--hardly a flattering self-assessment--it's true that Anoraknophobia belongs much more to 2001 than the days when certain lambs lay down on Broadway. Even if efforts to get with it are intermittently overeager--the 11-minute-long "When I Meet God" dearly wishes it could be the Verve's "The Drugs Don't Work"--there's much to admire in the shape of the genuinely pretty summer wistfulness of "Fruit of the Wild Rose," the stadium-rock competence of "Map of the World," and the Kula Shaker-like psychedelic funfair racket of "Separated Out." --Kevin Maidment