Radiation is the tenth studio album by the British neo-prog band Marillion, released in 1998. Recorded at The Racket Club between November 1997 and June 1998, it was co-produced and mixed by Stewart Every. The album was remixed by Michael Hunter in September to November 2012 and a reissued remastered version was released in 2013.

Background

For this album the band decided to experiment with different instrument tones, vocal effects, samples (making transitions between songs by cutting and pasting pieces from elsewhere in the album), and the like. As the album recording progressed, there was "a desire for new sounds and a desire not to repeat ourselves and to fall into familiar patterns", according to guitarist Steve Rothery.

The first element was that Rothery decided he wanted a different guitar sound. They placed a ban on digital delay and chorus which had been Rothery's sound for years. He borrowed a Gretsch from Dave Gregory, and played on a Harmony guitar on the bluesy "Born To Run". Mark Kelly used a new Roland JP8000, a virtual analogue synth which was very versatile, and he placed a ban on string synths. Pete Trewavas used quite a lot of his old Rickenbacker fuzz bass on the album.

During the recording sessions, the tracks "Tumble Down the Years" and "Interior Lulu" were recorded and mixed, but it was decided to leave them for the next album, marillion.com (1999), as the band thought the songs were incomplete.

They also tried a different approach to mixing that left certain fans criticise the production quality of the album. Rothery said: "I wanted to completely remix it. I think it’s an album with good material, poorly mixed. Sonically it’s a bit flat."

Drummer Ian Mosley said: "We tried to step outside ourselves, it sounds like a second rate version of who we were trying to copy. It backfired. I found it too harsh, not musical enough." It was the second of the three recordings Marillion made on a contract with Castle Communications between being dropped by EMI Records in 1995 and eventually going independent in the 2000s. Due to an announcement on the band's official website before the release, the album's title had been incorrectly listed as either Don't Try This at Home or Radiation Leak. As Marillion's tenth studio album, the number 10 can be seen in the "io" in both "marillion" and "radiation" on the front cover.

The album peaked at number 35 in the UK charts and stayed there for just one week,

Track listing

  • The Japan bonus tracks are live acoustic versions taken from Unplugged at the Walls (1999) released by Racket Records. The latter is also featured as a B-side of the single "These Chains".

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's 2013 liner notes.

;Marillion

  • Steve Hogarth – vocals, additional piano and percussion
  • Steve Rothery – guitars
  • Mark Kelly – keyboards and backing vocals
  • Pete Trewavas – bass, acoustic guitar (on "Now She'll Never Know") and backing vocals
  • Ian Mosley – drums and percussion

;Additional musicians

  • Erik Nielsen – backing vocals
  • Jo Rothery – additional backing vocals (on "Three Minute Boy")
  • Viki Price – additional backing vocals (on "Three Minute Boy")

;Technical personnel

  • Stewart Every – co-production, engineering and mixing (at The Forge, Oswestry, Shropshire, England) (original 1998 mix)
  • Michael Hunter – mixing (2013 remix)
  • Carl Glover – photography and graphic design
  • Niels van Iperen – portrait photography

Charts

;Album

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"

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! scope="col"| Chart (1998)

! scope="col"| Peak<br />position

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

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;"These Chains"

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"

|-

! scope="col"| Chart (1998)

! scope="col"| Peak<br />position

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Release history

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"

|-

! scope="col" | Region

! scope="col" | Date

! scope="col" | Label

! scope="col" | Format

! scope="col" | Catalog

|-

| Japan

| 18 September 1998

| Canyon International

| rowspan="3" | CD

| PCCY-01281

|-

| Europe

| 21 September 1998

| Raw Power

| RAW CD 126, GSA0000126RAW

|-

| United States

| 27 October 1998

| Velvel

| 63467-79760-2

|-

| rowspan="2" | Worldwide

| March 2013

| rowspan="2" | Madfish

| 2CD

| SMACD996

|-

| July 2013

| 2LP

| SMALP996

|}

References

;Notes

;Citations

  • The Official Marillion Website