Marillion Keeps Prog Alive Through “Clutching at Straws”: Prog Review #37

Marillion - Clutching at Straws

When the prog icons of the 70s were all changing their sound or breaking up, Marillion came along to carry the torch through the 80s with their neo-progressive sound — a natural evolution of 70s prog with added touches of 80s production and synths. The comparisons to Genesis in particular are obvious, at least on Clutching at Straws (1987).

A Fresh Take on Stagnant Sounds

A​t times, the synth solos sound like Genesis rehashes (not that that's a bad thing). The frequent displays of high atmospheric guitar wailing under ominous synth lines sound like any 80s movie soundtrack (not that that's a bad thing). On his last album with the band, Derek Dick's (AKA Fish's) singing is at times nearly indistinguishable from Peter Gabriel at his most plaintive or unhinged (not that that's a bad thing). Just listen to “That Time of Night” to hear all of this and more on one track.

Clutching at straws is notably one of only two 80s album on Rolling Stone's list of top 50 prog albums — the other is Rush's Moving Pictures (1981) — but what a showcase of how 80s production and themes can go right! Despite being locked into classic prog stylings at a time when all the classic prog bands were doing other things, Marillion also embraces the new while working in the cliches with paradoxical restraint. The penultimate track, “Sugar Mice,” features a hair metal ballad buildup and solo worthy of Whitesnake's “Here I Go Again.” “The Last Straw” closes the album with squealing solos and raspy backup vocals from Tessa Niles for another one of those glorious 80s touches.

I'm serving a sentence to write life's sentences / It's only when I'm out of it I make sense of this - “Just for the Record”

Clutching at Straws works so well for me because it puts it all together with complex melody and structure that, despite the relatively short song lengths, pull off the dramatic swings and dazzling emotional heights of golden age prog. The big 80s drums and synths only enhance the band’s ability to hit the right emotional notes.

I loved this album on the first listen, and part of what makes that easy to do is how much it's reminiscent of musical themes that precede it; the combination of the 70s prog influences and 80s cliches make Clutching at Straws familiar from minute one. So much so that I was able to write much of this review before even completing my first full listen of the album.

Lyrical Depth

Nevertheless, lyrically, the album stands out from its prog predecessors in a big way. Marillion marry all that slick modern production and retro sensibility to contemporary topics that seem far removed from the pastoral, philosophical, and sci fi themes of so much prog. “Warm Wet Circles” chronicles teenage heartbreak with a wealth of poetic imagery; sad teens are “gaudy moths” and “shabby butterflies... planning white lace weddings from smeared hearts,” while tears of disappointment are “warm wet circles.” By contrast, Peter Gabriel was only able to chronicle this sort of thing on “Cinema Show” with a lot of irony and by evoking Shakespeare and Greek myth. Elsewhere, even when sounding their most like both Gabriel and Collins-era Genesis on “Incommunicado,” we get lyrics about “Legoland,” “Multi-media bonafide celebrity,” “American Express cards,” and “talk shows on prime time TV.” This contemporary vision is of course enhanced by the album’s concept of essentially following a bitter drunk as he ambles from bar to bar lamenting his personal failures.

And you'll recognize by the reflection in our eyes / That deep down inside, we're all one and the same - “The Last Straw / Happy Ending”

Even further from prog escapism is the scathing “"White Russian.” It begins with those low synths and wailing guitar accents and gets bigger from there. But there's no mistaking the heavy-handed social commentary once the lyrics kick in: “They're boarding up the synagogues... We buy fresh bagels from the corner store / Where swastikas are spat from aerosols / ... They're burning down the synagogues / Uzis on a street corner / The heralds of the Holocaust.” The timeless qualities of pastoral Genesis or philosophic Yes seem naive and trite compared to “White Russian,” with its hopeless bafflement in the face of hate.

There’s also the sardonic “Slainte Mhath” that touches on the horrors of war and obliquely supports Scottish independence, more themes that English prog rarely confronts so directly.

How have I never gotten into Marillion before now? It's the same story as my failure to grasp Gentle Giant: I was listening to the wrong album. I've tried to listen to Script for a Jester's Tear (1983) and Misplaced Childhood (1985), and they felt thin and forgettable to me. But then I read a good review for the band's most recent album, An Hour Before It's Dark (2022), and it's now one of my favourite albums released this year. Naturally, I've been eager to get to this review and to dive into more Marillion.

Rolling Stone Rankings

1. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

2. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

3. Rush - Moving Pictures

4. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

5. Yes – Close to the Edge

6. Genesis - Selling England by the Pound

7. Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick

8. Can - Future Days

9. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

10. Yes - Fragile

11. Rush - Hemispheres

12. ELP - Brain Salad Surgery

13. Pink Floyd - Animals

14. Genesis - Foxtrot

15. King Crimson - Red

16. Gentle Giant - Octopus

17. Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells

18. Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All

19. Premiata Forneria Marconi - Per Un Amico

20. King Crimson - Larks’ Tongue in Aspic

21. Camel - Mirage

22. Rush - 2112

23. Tangerine Dream - Phaedra

24. Magma - Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh

25. The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium

26. Van Der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts

27. Supertramp - Crime of the Century

28. Opeth - Blackwater Park

29. Dream Theater - Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory

30. U.K. - U.K.

31. Renaissance - Ashes Are Burning

32. Kansas - Leftoverture

33. TOOL - Lateralus

34. Caravan - In the Land of Grey and Pink

35. Banco - Io Sono Nato Libero

36. Harmonium - Si on Avait Besoin d'une Cinquième Saison

37. Marillion - Clutching at Straws

ASK Rankings

1. Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

2. Supertramp - Crime of the Century

3. Genesis - Foxtrot

4. Caravan - In the Land of Grey and Pink

5. Marillion - Clutching at Straws

6. Camel - Mirage

7. Yes – Close to the Edge

8. Renaissance - Ashes Are Burning

9. King Crimson - Red

10. Gentle Giant - Octopus

11. Dream Theater - Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory

12. Genesis - Selling England by the Pound

13. Harmonium - Si on Avait Besoin d'une Cinquième Saison

14. Rush - 2112

15. Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick

16. ELP - Brain Salad Surgery

17. U.K. - U.K

18. Rush - Moving Pictures

19. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

20. Kansas - Leftoverture

21. Banco - Io Sono Nato Libero

22. The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium

23. Premiata Forneria Marconi - Per Un Amico

24. King Crimson - Larks’ Tongue in Aspic

25. Pink Floyd - Animals

26. TOOL - Lateralus

27. Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All

28. Yes - Fragile

29. Rush - Hemispheres

30. Tangerine Dream - Phaedra

31. Magma - Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh

32. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

33. Can - Future Days

34. Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells

35. Van Der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts

36. Opeth - Blackwater Park

37. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here