Marillion - Kayleigh

Having grown up in Aylesbury, Marillion are something I've been exposed to for quite some time. Their track Market Square Heroes is about the town's local market (where I've brought many records), which is in total decline these days. Kayleigh takes place during their concept album Misplaced Childhood, which is pretty good, it has moments of well written music and moments of psuedo-Phil Collins pop (which kinda let it down, though are still better than anything that baldy mustered up). We have to remember, Prog was in a very weird place in the eighties, punk had supposedly signalled it's death knell (despite the punk musicians being massive proggers anyways), but in reality, it was still going strong. It still had a massive following, but fifty minute xylophone solos representing dragons in fuedal era Japan are hardely MTV material. Luckily, a bunch of prog bands with pop sensibilities come into play, Marillion at the forefront, and achieved major success, keeping prog in the limelight until grunge and alt rock would finally remove it's mainstream recognition (again irony being that those who killed off prog were massive fans of it themselves)

Kayleigh starts off with some jangly guitars and plinky plonky eighties keyboard, Fish comes in asking if we remember, and apologises for breaking Keyleigh's heart. It's a sappy love song, yes, about trying the fix a breakup. It doesn't really build up for the chorus, just get plinky plonkier until we get a kinda allright guitar break before returning to plinky plonky land. And repeats. This track is one of those psuedo-Collins songs, and was a massive hit, still playing regularly on radio. It's not good, but it's not terrible, it's just kinda... there. Trapped in a void of the eternal eighties.

A reverbed drum beat draws us in over a light synthy chord sequence, we are now listening to Lady Nina, the B side. We are more in prog territory here, I mean, it's still very eighties pop, but is more musical. We have a fairly good guitar solo for quite a while. Kinda playing down the usual guitarist cliches though. The chorus is bouncy and suits Fish's voice, and as the song begins to wind down to a close, we get a synth solo over the top. This is more prog for sure. Then it fades out, when you'd expect it to carry on to another verse/chorus. Oh well.

All in all, Kayleigh is without a doubt, a true sign of it's times. It is inoffensive, played safe and overly polished. It's not a bad single to get, just it's not very good either. Lady Nina is a stronger track, but again there isn't really anything there that warrents a proper listen. Marillion were an albums band, and in the suites of music, they would litter these little commercial tracks. And that's all they really are, commercial tracks.