City Of Sound

A Rough Guide To Gradings

As I will be writing for The Rock this year I'm bringing my grading system into line with theirs. Here is how it works.

A song is awarded points on a scale of 0 to 3, where 0 is considered to be crap, 1 average, 2 good and 3 classic. We add up the total and then divide it by the total points available - for ten songs that will be 30 (3x10), 11 songs 33, and so on. This figure is then multiplied by 100 to achieve the magical % rating.

Of course it is not an exact science and the rating is still very much a matter of opinion. Anything between 60-70% has to be considered a strong effort while you won't come across much above that very often.

100 - 91 Classic 50 - 41 Patchy
90 - 81 Essential 40 - 31 Below Average
80 - 71 Brilliant 30 - 21 Bad
70 - 61 Very Good 20 - 11 Very Bad
60 - 51 Good 10 - 00 Delete

November '98

Radiation

MARILLION
RADIATION
RAW CD 126
75%

With their tenth studio album Marillion continue to experiment and bring new angles to their music. After the Noel Coward-esque intro piece "Costa Del Slough" the album gets going with "Under The Sun", which is already proving its worth in the live environment, heavier than usual with a more modern groove from Ian Mosley. "Answering Machine" continues the heavier direction and has strong echoes of early Marillion, the guitar and keyboards (including a solo from Mark Kelly) sounding like the early 80s all over again. Hogarth's vocals (sounding like an answering machine message) have a very English folk inflection to their delivery. Another highlight. "Three Minute Boy" has a very Beatles feel, but soon builds into more typical Marillion fare. The simple, acoustic based "Now She'll Never Know" has a beautifully fragile vocal from Hogarth which just shows what a truly amazing singer he is. "Born To Run" is an experiment in blues and doesn't do much for me personally. "Cathedral Wall" is a Marillion "builder" and takes cues from "Brave" and "Clutching At Straws", nothing instant or commercial here. Add the intensity of "King" and you have another highlight. "A Few Words For The Dead" is my favourite track, I love the way the band join Hogarth after 6 1/2 minutes of ambient style atmospherics - I wonder if they would have written this prior to the Positive Light collaboration? Should be interesting if they do it live. A stunning way to close the album. As usual this isn't an instant listen but Marillion albums usually reward a bit of effort from the listener. Perhaps not classic Marillion but I'm sure a few of these songs will be around in the live set for some time to come. It's good to see that after 10 albums the band is still keen to explore and expand there sound.

Legends Diner

RICK MONROE
LEGENDS DINER
DIVORCE RECORDS DR 6369-2
46%

Rick Monroe plays singer songwriter style melodic rock mixed together with elements of the Black Crowes rootsy blues. Acoustic guitars mix neatly with electrics to give that midwest feel, with traces of Nelson and Mitch Malloy creeping in here and there. Those Black Crowes leanings tend to put me off, but over all "Legends Diner" is a decent enough set especially on tracks like "Life Goes On In LA" and "Dancing In The Moonlight".
Contract: http://www.rickmonroe.com


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Peter Sims
Last update 4th November 1998
Created 4th November 1998 © Peter Sims