The Marionette and the Music Box | |
Type: | studio |
Artist: | Unwed Sailor |
Cover: | The_Marionette.jpg |
Released: | 2003 |
Genre: | Instrumental rock, ambient[1] |
Length: | 37:46 |
Label: | Burnt Toast Vinyl[2] |
Prev Title: | The Magic Hedge |
Prev Year: | 2002 |
Next Title: | Circles |
Next Year: | 2006 |
The Marionette and the Music Box is a 2003 concept album by the instrumental rock group Unwed Sailor.[3] [4] The album consists of 17 instrumental tracks, each of which coincide with a painting by graphic artist Jamie Hunt in the included booklet.[5] The paintings and song titles tell the story of a marionette who journeys out of his cottage and discovers a music box.[6] The pages following their initial meeting go on to detail the entrance of a mysterious unicorn, the marionette's subsequent "enchantment," his "hopeless pursuit" of the unicorn, and eventually his return to the open arms of the music box.
The album was released on compact disc, vinyl, and also in a hardcover book that included large versions of all the paintings in the CD and vinyl booklets, along with the compact disc attached to the back cover.
The A.V. Club wrote that "for all [the album's] conceptual weightiness and lofty artistic goals, it's sublime and endlessly rewarding as background music, too."[5] Exclaim! called The Marionette and the Music Box an "album of subtlety and focus ... just plain soothing on the ears. One of the best records of the year."[7]