Fugazi (album)

Fugazi is the second studio album by the British neo-progressive rock band Marillion, released in 1984. Produced by Nick Tauber, it was recorded between November 1983 and February 1984 at various studios and was the first to feature drummer Ian Mosley, following the dismissal of the band's original drummer Mick Pointer.

This article is about the Marillion album. For the 7-track release by the band named Fugazi, see Fugazi (EP).

Fugazi
Studio album by
Marillion
Released12 March 1984[1]
RecordedNovember 1983 — February 1984
Studio
Genre
Length45:56
LabelEMI
ProducerNick Tauber
Marillion chronology
Script for a Jester's Tear
(1983)		 Fugazi
(1984)		 Real to Reel
(1984)
Singles from Fugazi
  1. "Punch and Judy"
    Released: 30 January 1984
  2. "Assassing"
    Released: 30 April 1984
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]

According to AllMusic, the album "streamlined the intricacies of the group's prog rock leanings in favour of a more straight-ahead hard rock identity".[2] Built upon the success of its predecessor, Script for a Jester's Tear, Fugazi reached the UK Top 5[4] and went Gold.[5]

Background

Following their first album and its support tour, Marillion found themselves behind schedule, under pressure from EMI Records to deliver a second album. Producer Nick Tauber worked the band hard, having them stop into various rehearsal and recording studios to write songs, and to find a replacement drummer for Mick Pointer, who had been fired.[6] American drummer Jonathan Mover auditioned in London in September 1983, and two days later was performing with Marillion in Germany.

Marillion settled into Rockfield Studios in Wales to compose some songs. According to an interview with Mover, the various band members had been working separately on songs when the band's front man, Fish, asked whether they agreed with his new idea that it should be a concept album like Pink Floyd's The Wall. The more veteran band members said "maybe," but new drummer Mover said it was a bad idea, that the current crop of songs was not connected by any theme, and would have to be scrapped. According to Mover, Fish took this as a challenge to his authority and he was fired from the band.[6] Fish said later, "Jonathan Mover left me cold, but the musicians loved him because he was super-technical. I felt I was being railroaded. All he could talk about was drums, and he didn’t fit in to the band's social element."[7] Mover received a writing credit for the single "Punch and Judy".[8]

The production schedule ran so late that Marillion had to begin their album support tour before the album was ready.[6]

Release

Critical reception

As Marillion used ten different studios to record the album and the line-up had undergone a change, Fugazi proved to be a slightly incoherent follow-up to Script for a Jester's Tear, which was noticed in the retrospective review by John Franck of AllMusic. Nevertheless, he awarded the album a 4-star rating, singling out such songs as "Assassing", "Incubus", and "Fugazi".[3]

Writing for Ultimate Classic Rock, Eduardo Rivadavia observed:

Fugazi proved just as diverse, ambitious, even preposterous (in the best possible prog-rock sense) as Script. They matched epic, complex musicianship with oblique wordplay to perfection on the likes of "Assassing", "Jigsaw", "Incubus", and the title track – all of which would become perennial concert favorites for years to come. If anything, the new album was, at once, more polished (in terms of both production standards and song arrangements) and a tad less consistent than its predecessor, unquestionably falling short of heightened expectations on the somewhat less-than-stellar "Emerald Lies" and certainly the subpar "She Chameleon".[9]

Commercial performance

Fugazi reached number 5 in the UK Albums Chart, spending a total of 20 weeks there.[4] It was certified Gold by the BPI on 9 July 1985 for sales in excess of 100,000 copies.[5] The album produced two singles which became Top 30 hits, "Punch and Judy" (UK no. 29) and "Assassing" (UK no. 22).[10]

Formats and reissues

The album was initially released on LP[nb 1], 12" picture disc and cassette.[11] The first CD issue[nb 2] appeared sometime afterwards.

As part of a series of Marillion's first eight studio albums, EMI Records re-released Fugazi on 23 February 1998 with 24-bit digital remastered sound and a second disc containing bonus tracks[nb 3]. The remastered version was also made available without the bonus disc in 2000 and again in 2005 as a Japanese mini-LP replica[nb 4].

A new 180g heavy-weight vinyl pressing identical to the original 1984 edition[nb 5] was released in 2012.[11]

Sleeve artwork

In 2012, Gigwise chose the sleeve design by Mark Wilkinson as 29th in its countdown of the "Greatest Album Artwork of All Time". Holly Frith wrote: "Despite the arguable quality of their music, Marillion most certainly gave a shit about their album artwork and this multi-tiered image of a young man suffering an apparent overdose is their most startling, brilliant and thought-provoking."[12]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Fish, Mark Kelly, Steve Rothery, Pete Trewavas, except where noted.

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Assassing" 7:03
2."Punch & Judy"Fish, Kelly, Rothery, Trewavas, Jonathan Mover3:22
3."Jigsaw" 6:51
4."Emerald Lies"Fish, Kelly, Rothery, Trewavas, Ian Mosley5:12
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
5."She Chameleon" 6:55
6."Incubus" 8:32
7."Fugazi"Fish, Kelly, Rothery, Trewavas, Mosley8:03
Total length:45:56
1998 remastered edition bonus disc
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Cinderella Search" (12" version)Fish, Kelly, Rothery, Trewavas, Mosley5:32
2."Assassing" (alternative mix) 7:41
3."Three Boats Down from the Candy"Fish, Kelly, Rothery, Trewavas, Mick Pointer, Diz Minnett4:01
4."Punch & Judy" (demo)Fish, Kelly, Rothery, Trewavas, Mover3:51
5."She Chameleon" (demo) 6:34
6."Emerald Lies" (demo)Fish, Kelly, Rothery, Trewavas, Mosley5:33
7."Incubus" (demo) 8:10
Total length:41:20
  • All individual writing credits are from the 1998 remastered edition[nb 3]. According to the original 1984 version[nb 1], all songs were written by the whole band; all lyrics are credited to Fish.

Personnel

Charts
Album
Chart (1984) Peak
position
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[13] 29
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[14] 42
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[15] 23
UK Albums (OCC)[16] 5

Certifications
Region Certification
United Kingdom (BPI)[5] Gold

References
Notes
  1. EMI: EMC 2400851
  2. EMI: CDP 7 46027 2
  3. EMI: 7243 4 93369 2 6, 493 3692
  4. Toshiba-EMI: TOCP-67785
  5. EMI: 50999 621806 1 0, VEMC 2900851
Citations
  1. "Fugazi". Fish-TheCompany.Com: Official Site. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  2. Jensen, Dale. "Marillion Biography by Dale Jensen". AllMusic. Retrieved 4 September 2016.
  3. Franck, John. Marillion: "Fugazi" > Review at AllMusic. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  4. "Marillion - Fugazi". Official Chart Company. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  5. "British album certifications – Marillion – Fugazi". British Phonographic Industry. Archived from the original on 15 March 2015.
  6. Romano, Will (2010). Mountains Come Out of the Sky: The Illustrated History of Prog Rock. Backbeat Books. p. 394. ISBN 978-0879309916.
  7. Dave Ling (October 2001) Interview with Fish Classic Rock
  8. "Fugazi". Allmusic. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  9. Rivadavia, Eduardo (12 March 2014), "30 years ago: Marillion release 'Fugazi'", Ultimate Classic Rock, retrieved 2 April 2015
  10. "Marillion". Official Chart Company. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  11. "Fugazi". The Official Marillion Website. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  12. Frith, Holly (2 April 2012). "The Greatest Album Artwork of All Time". Gigwise. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  13. "Dutchcharts.nl – Marillion – Fugazi" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  14. "Offiziellecharts.de – Marillion – Fugazi" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  15. "Swedishcharts.com – Marillion – Fugazi". Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  16. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
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