Originally released in 1997, This Strange Engine was a top 30 hit in the UK and reached #10 in the NL album charts. The album features the singles "Man Of A Thousand Faces" and "80 Days" and shows the band exploring a revitalized sound featuring more acoustic elements.
This Strange Engine is the first of three recordings that Marillion made on a contract with Castle between departing EMI in 1995 and eventually going independent in 2000. Widely regarded as one of the most well produced Marillion albums, it finds the band in transition, ditching some of the lengthier compositions of previous albums in favour of a more succinct, commercial sound.