With their underperforming sophomore album, Fugazi, Marillion needed something big to rebound back. This would come with their third album, 1985's Misplaced Childhood. Lead singer Fish would conceive the concept album while enduring a ten-hour acid trip.
Though considered more mainstream, the album is also their first full concept from start to finish, with each side containing two continuous pieces of music. The story has, "thematic elements of lost love, sudden success, acceptance, and lost childhood, along with an upbeat ending." - Some random guy on Wiki.
Misplaced Childhood would shoot up the UK charts, becoming their first and only number one album, staying there for forty-one weeks. It would also reach the top ten in multiple countries, such as Germany (3), Switzerland (6), and the Netherlands (6), to name a few. Even the US gave it more love than previous albums which hovered around the high one hundreds and low two hundreds, with Childhood peaking at forty-seven.
Lead single Kayleigh would be the bands only song to hit the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at seventy-four. It would fare much better in the UK, where it reached number two on the Singles Chart. It was followed by Lavender, which reached number five, and the less successful Heart Of Lothain, which peaked at twenty-nine.
The album would reach platinum certification in the UK and Germany, and be followed by gold certification in Switzerland, making it their most successful release to date, and their best of all time in their career. 1985 was a big year in pop rock music, so this was no small achievement.
Kayleigh is one serious banger of a track. This is the kind of Marillion I want in my life. Good instrumentation packed into a feasible four-minute run time, with catchy riffs and vocals.
This, however, is where the concept portion of the album becomes problematic. Because the tracks ebb and flow into each other without so much as a breath in between, there's no distinguishing the beginning or end of each song. As stand-alone tracks these either incoherently start or abruptly cut off. That's lame.
The trend with Marillion seems to be that I'm only coming away with one song after each listening session. That's not a good average, and far below what I expected. Personally, I also didn't see Misplaced Childhood as any better than their previous albums. It was just kind of more of the same.
At their peak, Marillion seemed poised to only get bigger and better. Unfortunately, this wouldn't be the case. Despite their 1987 released Clutching At Straws being their second highest album of all time, it would see a massive decline in sales. After extensive touring, it also brought the band to an ultimatum decision that would either make or break them. Which option did they choose? Well, you'll have to come back tomorrow to find out...Or Google it. I suppose Google is always an option.
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