Marillion Clutching At Straws CD

This package includes an Enhanced bonus CD including 12 rare tracks as well as multimedia computer files.

Principally recorded at Westside Studios, London, England. Includes liner notes by Fish, Mark Kelly, Mark Wilkinson, Ian Mosley and Avil Mackintosh.

Written and conceived during a period of inner-band turmoil, Clutching at Straws would prove to be Fish's swan song, and perhaps Marillion's most unheralded masterpiece. Teaming up once again with producer Chris Kimsey, Clutching at Straws showcases some of the band's most satisfying compositions, including the magnificent "Warm Wet Circles" and "That Time of the Night (The Short Straw)." Bookended by Fish's disgust with not only himself, "Torch Song," but also with the burgeoning neo-Nazi uprising in Europe, "White Russian," the great Scot delivers an inspired condemnation. The commercial pomp and circumstance of "Incommunicado" also gives way to a self-parodying confessional inspired by Fish's inability to see himself as a bona fide rock star and celebrity ("I want to do adverts for American Express cards, talk shows on prime time T.V."). Tour opener "Slainte Mhath" is simple and elegant, building to its dramatic crescendo only to be upstaged by "Sugar Mice" -- quite simply, one of Marillion's best commercial singles ever. The album's stunning closer, "The Last Straw," is Fish's self-realization that yes, the band is not only over, but that in his mind, it's null and void ("and if you ever come across us, don't give us your sympathy"). Steve Rothery's blinding guitar solo brings the whole thing down to a crashing finish (prophetically, announcing his arrival as the band's true musical instigator on subsequent Fish-less records). ~ John Franck

Written and conceived during a period of inner-band turmoil, Clutching at Straws would prove to be Fish's swan song and perhaps Marillion's most unheralded masterpiece. Teaming up once again with producer Chris Kimsey, Clutching at Straws showcases some of the band's most satisfying compositions, including the magnificent "Warm Wet Circles" and "That Time of the Night (The Short Straw)." Bookended by Fish's disgust with not only himself, "Torch Song," but also with the burgeoning neo-nazi uprising in Europe, "White Russian," the great Scot delivers an inspired condemnation. The commercial pomp and circumstance of "Incommunicado" also gives way to a self-parodying confessional inspired by Fish's inability to see himself as a bona fide rock star and celebrity ("I want to do adverts for American Express cards, talk shows on prime time T.V."). Tour opener "Slainte Mhath" is simple and elegant, building to its dramatic crescendo only to be upstaged by "Sugar Mice" -- quite simply, one of Marillion's best commercial singles ever. The album's stunning closer, "The Last Straw," is Fish's self-realization that yes, the band is not only over, but that in his mind, its null and void ("and if you ever come across us, don't give us your sympathy"). Steven Rothery's blinding guitar solo brings the whole thing down to a crashing finish (prophetically, announcing his arrival as the band's true musical instigator on subsequent Fish-less records). The 1999 re-release of Clutching at Straws features a bonus disc chock full of unrelease

24 bit digitally remastered reissue of the hit prog rockgroup's 1987 album for EMI, complete with a bonus CDfeaturing 12 rare tracks & CD-ROM material. 'Clutching AtStraws', their final album with Fish as vocalist, reached #2in the U.K. & contains 12 tracks, including the U.K. top 10smash 'Incommunicado' and the U.K. top 30 hits 'Sugar Mice'& 'Warm Wet Circles'. The extra disc has 'Incommunicado'(Alternative Version), 'Tux On', 'Going Under' (Extended Version) and nine previously unreleased recordings, 'Beaujolais Day', 'Story From A Thin Wall', 'Shadows On The Barley', 'Sunset Hill', 'Tic-Tac-Toe', 'Voice In The Crowd', 'Exile OnPrinces Street', 'White Russians' (Demo) & 'Sugar Mice In The Rain'. A combined total of 24