Afterthoughts 1 : Brave - Marillion

If there is one album I'll take on a desert island (at least deserted with a cd player and electricity), this is the one.
Lots and lots of albums are great but if I have to choose then it will be this one.
Because it is from my favorite band.
Because it is a concept album, with a story running all through it.
Because it is prog rock that touches my soul.
So obviously it should be the first afterthoughts.

The story is a fiction based on a real fact about a young girl found wandering near the Severn Bridge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_%28Marillion_album%29 for more hindsight on the album.

Let's just say that My discovery of Brave was quite hard.
When I first listened to it a couple of times, I felt it was ... too harsh, hard to enter. Not as easy listening as Seasons end or Holidays in eden, I found myself pushed back by it... There was quite a bunch of  rock on songs sure (paper lies, hard as love) but it was.... very slow.
Because Brave takes its time. From the first slow opening, the moody story starts to unravel itself as the songs go by altering rock on ones and slower, very moody ones.
It is not an album with singles nor great tunes and great songs you can almost listen to at random or separately.

As most concept albums go, Brave of course need you to enter it's universe, follow the story in order and let yourself be grabbed by the eerie feeling that lingers in from most of the tracks. Few seems out of place (paper lies and hard as love to my taste and the final one...) and it is a really great experience, like a good movie that keeps on showing bit of itself  the more you watch it. Brave need lots and lots of listenings, in the dark with the volume up as they say, to really get to you but in the end it will be rewarding.
A truly amazing album with great songwriting and lyrics, not at all happy despite the final track , placed here to try to lighten the mood. It should be. Brave is dark, desperate, harsh, hard as love indeed. And it is truly a masterpiece in the prog rock and concept album hall of fame that you should try to listen to... but give it time.
In those days of straight forward easy successes, I give you the thing that could not work and yet should be listen to. Brave.