The Great Escape (Marillion, 1994)

I know it's difficult to single out a "Brave" song, as this album is a strong, cohesive compisition, but "The Great Escape" has a distinctive enough structure to stand alone. In addition to this, it also has all the main characters of the album. It mixes a good melody and a creative arrangement with the usual Marillion features, such as Steve Rothery's dreaming guitar, Mark Kelly's ethereal keyboard background, Steve Hogarth's sensitive vocals and so on, but I especially appreciate here the excellent main melody and all its variations. The track includes two more sections called "The Last of You" and "Falling from The Moon", also very good and featuring sad, beautiful lyrics co-credited to Hogarth and Helmer.

 

This song was also released as a single in 1994.

This track is also well known by Marillion fans for its changeable endings, depending on its different editions and supports. The original CD version leads to a happier album finale, "Made Again", intended to raise up the listener's state of mind, while the 2-LP edition also offers an alternate (and sadder) 20 minute water noises to close the work. Finally, a so called spiral remake is also available as a bonus track in the remastered CD released in 1998. Be as it may, this is a great song IMHO, digging into the deepest recesses of human soul.