Album of the Day

Clutching at Straws, by Marillion (1987): I've generally not purchased remastered versions of albums I already own - I'm sure they sound better, but I can't really tell and it seems like a waste. The exception is something like the remastered Clutching . . ., which contains a whole disc of interesting extras. The meat of the bonus disc are demos that the band did with Fish after the Clutching . . . tour but before he left the band. As such, some of the musical bits got recycled on Seasons End, while some of the lyrical bits ended up on Fish's first two solo albums. Particularly interesting is "Story From a Thin Wall," which matches up the music from "Berlin" with the lyrics to "Family Business." Oh, and the actual album is great, too.