Marillion – Misplaced Childhood

Misplaced Childhood has been on my desert-island Top 20 list since its original release in 1985. I bought this 4-LP box set with a lot of enthusiasm. Finally, Misplaced Childhood was going to receive the treatment it deserved, and I thought that the live recordings were a pleasant addition. They nicely presented the four LPs with inner sleeves that replicate the cases of the original master tapes and included a 24-page colour booklet which is quite interesting.

The listening experience is neither bad nor brilliant. The main title LP lacks excitement and sounds quite lifeless and flat compared with my 1985 US pressing of Marillion - Misplaced Childhood, which to this day keeps being my go-to version. I still hope that some day soon some audiophile label will give Misplaced Childhood the ultimate release it deserves. A one-step maybe? Or is that too naïve to expect? I am sure there still are a lot dynamics and freshness locked in those master tapes. Until this happens, I’ll keep enjoying my 1985 US release, and keep this one just for the extra live material.

This is a 4-LP box set, not 3 as mentioned above. I go back and forth with my original 1985 US Capitol release on SQ, both have their ups and downs but for the most part this remaster is amazing and as usual Optimal Media pressed it in pristine form. Very high end quality, and the packaging is magnificent.

After listening to it for a few times, i think the dynamic range on the original pressings from the 80s were a bit better, but it's still far away from being worse. I still got some distortions during the end of each side, probably a bit more than with the original 80s pressing, which is kind of weird.

Another important addition: It says that this live concert from Utrecht 1985 has already been released on singles, for example, "Heart Of Lothian" contained "Chelsea Monday".

The thing is: Listen to "Chelsea Monday" from the single and from this boxset version, you will notice: These are two different performances!

Marillion played in Utrecht on the 15th and 16 of October 1985, thus i assume that they used a different day for this release. Or, probably even worse, a mix of both of them?

Who knows for sure, while it remains true that an Utrecht concert has been already released previously in the 80s, this one is from another night and thus can't be compared to previous releases.

Beside that, what a great version of "The Web", far better than the version from "Script.." tour!