Album of the Day

Brave, by Marillion (1994): A little while ago, jedi jawa posted about bridges and the people who jump off them (and I see that someone jumped off the New River Gorge Bridge yesterday), which, of course, put me in mind if Brave. It's a concept album, inspired by a BBC radio report vocalist/lyricist Steve Hogarth heard about a girl who was found wandering the Severn Bridge between England and Wales. She was mute and nobody knew anything about her, so they were pleading for information on the radio. Brave takes that incident as a jumping off point, trying to answer the "how did she get there" question, taking in along the way observations about the state of the modern world, obsessive love, child abuse, and media sensationalism. Musically and lyrically, it was a stunning return to form for the band after the so-so pop leanings of Holidays in Eden. The highpoint of H-era Marillion, at least until Marbles came along.