HiRez Poll Marillion - BRAVE [Blu-Ray Audio]

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Rate the BDA of Marillion - BRAVE

  • 7

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1: Poor Content, Surround Mix, and Fidelity

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    46
Never would've found out about this band if not for the forum. I sampled Misplaced Childhood when it came out in 5.1 and it didn't really connect with me. So I wasn't exactly jumping up and down when it was announced SW was doing this one next. But then I did some research and found out they changed lead singers.

Some comparisons can definitely be made between the style of this album and a lot of SW's own musical works, especially Hand Cannot Erase.

As with most complex progressive works, this album does have a bit of a learning curve. I started listening last week and I only really liked two songs ("Alone Again In The Lap Of Luxury" and "Paper Lies", which are still my favorites). Over further listens the rest of the songs and the story behind them fell into place.

Now I've got the surround mix and it elevates the album even further. This album is all about atmosphere, and it's clear that a lot of production work was put into creating that effect. I think this album really was a great choice for the surround treatment because of that - the dense atmosphere is naturally even more immersive in 5.1. It's not the most wild mix in terms of separation/panning, but it's really well done. There are plenty of fun surround moments such as the panning vocals in "Mad" and lead guitar flying around the room at the end of "Lap Of Luxury".

A few other notes:
  • Unlike a lot of SW mixes, the center vocal track isn't completely isolated. I wonder if this was an intentional choice by SW when mixing the 5.1 or if it was originally recorded with some instrument bleed?
  • Steve Rothery is an awesome guitarist! Absolutely love the guitar sound and solos sprinkled throughout the album.
  • On the Blu-Ray, the interconnected suites ("Goodbye To All That...", “Great Escape”, etc) are split into separate tracks that flow gaplessly
I think I'll leave my vote at a strong 9. If you didn't like Misplaced, give this a shot. It might as well be from a different band.
 
Last edited:
I spent the last few days getting to know the CD stereo mix in my car, and while there were a few songs I liked right away ("Runaway", "Hard As Love", "Alone Again In The Lap Of Luxury", "The Great Escape" sequence), a lot of the album just seemed too mellow and really quiet, with lots of "filler" bits in between the main songs. I wasn't all that enthusiastic when I slid the BD-A into my OPPO, but WOW, what an entirely new dimension SW's surround mix adds to this album. In the warm glow of my hi-fi, the surround mix reveals so many layers of sound hidden in all those quiet moments of the album ("The Slide", for example)... there's so much going on and Wilson's mix adeptly spreads the instruments and sound effects discretely around the room with just the right amount of activity. This is a great hi-fidelity listen from start to finish (and I havn't even begun to delve into the "concept" of the album). Man, I wish Steven was doing more of these Marillion mixes. 9.
 
SJ, you're a dear brother, but I'm struggling to see or hear how 90's Marillion resembles Nirvana!
Maybe Hogarth's haircut a little?!
I would say Genesis, Yes, Rush, Spock's Beard, Steven Wilson.
Hogarth doesn't use head voice as much as Fish does. Definite vocal style changes, but not too drastic.
 
SJ, you're a dear brother, but I'm struggling to see or hear how 90's Marillion resembles Nirvana!
Maybe Hogarth's haircut a little?!
I would say Genesis, Yes, Rush, Spock's Beard, Steven Wilson.
Hogarth doesn't use head voice as much as Fish does. Definite vocal style changes, but not too drastic.

Maybe that was a bit of a knee-jerk comparison, but to my ears it’s certainly got a bit of that ‘90s grungey/dark vibe.

I look forward to the rest of the Hogarth albums getting surround mixes!
 
I've listened to this set many times before grading it. I really enjoy the Fish era material but had barely heard anything from after he left. My first reaction was that the album was very slow! A lot of atmosphere and great playing but SLOW! Nothing wrong with that mind you but it surprised me a bit. If anything, I had thought it would go more the other way. Once I got past that mental hurdle, I really found the lyrics and story to be very engaging and the music serves it extremely well. The surround mix is perfect for the tone and mood and sounds terrific cranked up loud. There are moments when I feel like I'm caught up in a movie. Very powerful. As a whole it hangs together nicely and in my opinion truly needs to be listened to as an album. I love the consistent packaging, copious extras, informative doc, and book. Great value and a real treat. I voted an 8 based on the beautiful package and wonderful mix of the very good, albeit not great, album contained therein. If you are coming into this as a big fan of the record, then I have no doubt your rating will be a 10. A job very well done.
 
I just got this release a few days ago and will be voting after my surround listen this weekend. I have already listened to the two different mixes of stereo CD's and the two live discs all in the car. Love them. Hard to believe how good the 1994 recording live sounds so fantastic. Marillion is a band that I now love after being turned on by QQ. The packaging and liner notes are fantastic also. A 10 on all that is not surround.
 
I voted 9. This was really hard for me to feel that I gave an accurate vote. I had Clutching At Straws in my head and this is just different. The opening track with the ship horns? is so awesome. I like the peoples voices through out the disc, sounds cool. I have been listening to Steven Wilson for a few years now, saw him once at The Warfield in SF and if I was to say what he sounds like, his own music, is as close to Marillion as you could get.
Anyway, not a disc that you need a lot of volume, more of a thinking man's kind of disc. I listened at 55db, 24/96Khz in Pure Direct mode, I cannot tweak speakers in this mode, it is pure from the disc. No radio hits, at least in the San Francisco scene. The SW mix of course, as always was awesome, but more on the immersive side than the discrete side, but with certain noises, waves, vocals, etc it can be viewed as discrete.
Packaging, similar to Jethro Tull packaging is lovely, the two stereo mix CD's and the two Live at Gilgale, France CD's are super good.
I am certainly glad to have it in my collection and look forward to other Marillion surround releases.
 
So just received Brave, XTC the Larking and the new Pineapple thief. For me these are new groups I never had been exposed to but thanks to Mike from life in surround and his reviews I decided to take the leap. I am so glad I did.
From almost the first note of Brave I was hooked. This is a brooding and moody piece of music that pulls you into the story. Steven Wilson did an masterful job of mixing this. I have listened to the bluray twice, sometimes you read where you might have to listen to some music a few times before it grows on you, for me with Brave I got it the first time, Interesting group
 
A 9 of course. Not quite good enough for a perfect rating, but certainly good enough to satisfy if you know what I mean. Still getting into these guys and every time I buy one of their albums in surround it's the first time I've ever heard it. Too bad they didn't include the movie of this album which came out later.
 
Back
Top