Anoraknophobia
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 thatAnoraknophobiabelongs 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 theVerve'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 theKula Shaker-like psychedelic funfair racket of "Separated Out."--Kevin Maidment