Brave (Marillion album)

Infobox Album
Name = Brave
Type = Album
Artist = Marillion


Released = 7 February 1994 17 October 1998 (two-disc edition)
Recorded = Marouatte Castle, France, November 1992 - August 1993
Genre = Progressive rock
Length = 1:11:08 (single-disc edition) 2:03:01 (two-disc edition)
Label = EMI
Producer = Dave Meegan
Reviews =
* All Music Guide rating|3|5 [http://wc05.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:gjfrxqqgldse link]
* Dprp.net rating|10|10 [http://www.dprp.net/proghistory/index.php?i=1994_01 link] Fluffhouse Music Reviews rating|10|10 [http://www.fluffhouse.org.uk/musicreviews/album.php?albumid=227 link]
Last album = "Holidays in Eden" (1991)
This album = "Brave" (1994)
Next album = "Afraid of Sunlight" (1995)
Misc = Singles
Name = Brave
Type = studio
single 1 = The Great Escape
single 1 date = 10 January 1994
single 2 = The Hollow Man
single 2 date = 14 March 1994
single 3 = Alone Again in the Lap of Luxury
single 3 date = 25 April 1994

"Brave" is an album by the group Marillion released in 1994.

After trying and failing to reach a wider audience with "Holidays in Eden", Marillion figured it was time to go back to their roots and make a more progressive rock-oriented album again. "Brave" is a concept album, based on a news story Steve Hogarth heard on the radio about a girl who was taken into police custody after being found wandering the Severn Bridge. She did not know who she was, where she came from and refused to even speak. This inspired Hogarth to write a fictional story about this girl and what might have led to her being on Severn Bridge in this state.

The band relocated to Marouatte castle in France for the duration of the recording of "Brave". The influence of these surroundings can be heard throughout the album in a lot of haunting atmospherics. They even went into a cave which lay in the nearby area and taped some cave sounds which were used as background ambiance on the album. This recording concept was later used by Radiohead for their OK Computer album, which was also (musically) greatly influenced by "Brave"Fact|date=February 2008. As engineer, they got Dave Meegan whom had previously worked with Marillion on "Fugazi". As for EMI, they really wanted the band to do a "quick record" to gain some revenue, but this project would escalate and escalate. It took the band nine months to write and produce this album, partly because of Dave who would go through "every single new tape made every day" each night listening for any riff or melody which sounded good enough to be included in the songs. This hard and tedious work paid off in the end.

"Brave" is regarded by many fans to be one of Marillion's best albums. It was, however, no public hit due to EMI's lack of promotion and the fact that it had no real single potential. However, three singles were released: "The Great Escape." (February 1994), "The Hollow Man" (March 1994) and "Alone Again In The Lap Of Luxury" (April 1994).

The 2-LP vinyl release of "Brave" features a double groove on the second side of disc 2. The first groove plays 'The Great Escape' as heard on the CD, followed by 'Made Again'; the second groove plays 'The Great Escape (Spiral Remake)' and 20 minutes of water noise. This provides 2 different endings to the album story, depending on where you drop the needle.

Track listing

All music by Hogarth/Rothery/Kelly/Trewavas/Mosley. All lyrics by Hogarth except as indicated.

ide one

# "Bridge" – 2:55
# "Living With The Big Lie" – 6:46
# "Runaway" (Hogarth/Helmer) – 4:40

ide two

# "Goodbye To All That" – 12:26
# "Hard As Love" (Hogarth/Helmer) – 6:41

ide three

# "The Hollow Man" – 4:08
# "Alone Again In The Lap Of Luxury" – 8:13
# "Paper Lies" (Hogarth/Helmer) – 5:47

ide four

# "Brave" – 7:56
# "The Great Escape" (Hogarth/Helmer) – 6:30
# "Made Again" (Helmer) – 5:02

The 1998 remaster has the following additional tracks on the second CD:

# "The Great Escape" (Orchestral Version) – 5:18
# "Marouatte Jam" – 9:44
# "The Hollow Man" (Acoustic) – 4:10
# "Winter Trees" – 1:47
# "Alone Again In The Lap Of Luxury" (Acoustic) – 2:43
# "Runaway" (Acoustic) – 4:27
# "Hard As Love" (Instrumental) – 6:48
# "Living With The Big Lie" (Demo) – 5:12
# "Alone Again In The Lap Of Luxury" (Demo) – 3:17
# "Dream Sequence" (Demo) – 2:36
# "The Great Escape" (Spiral Remake) – 5:48

External links

Comments by some of the band members (on the [http://www.marillion.com marillion.com] band page):

* [http://www.marillion.com/music/albums/brave.htm#h Steve Hogarth]
* [http://www.marillion.com/music/albums/brave.htm#rothers Steve Rothery]
* [http://www.marillion.com/music/albums/brave.htm#pete Pete Trewavas]