SEASONS END

A very appropriately named album - the Fish season with Marillion had ended. On listening to this I found that this wasn't the Marillion that I had come to love a great deal. Having said that I really got into this album and I liked it - a lot. I still do. The music on here is highly emotive and melodic.

"The King of Sunset Town" - Soaring track with a great melody. Rothery excells here with his amazing lead guitar sound. Hogarth - well! - the man's voice is almost angelic. As a whole the band put together a very nice sound full of emotion. Bodes well for the rest of the album.

"Easter" - Man! I love this track. The lyrics, the voice, the whole dang thing. This is a very rousing number and you almost feel like bursting into song and singing along with the track.

"The Uninvited Guest" - At first I thought that this track was a bit of a let down however it grew on me and I don't mind it now.

"Seasons End" - A giant of a track. Highly emotive and it resonates with me like few tracks do. Again Rothery excels with his use of the lead guitar.

"Holloway Girl" - Not my favorite track from the album but nothing really wrong here.

"Berlin" - Another giant track, especially from around the two thirds mark where things come together powerfully.

"After Me" - Soft very emotional track. "She named him after me!" Very powerful stuff.

"Hooks on you" - Nice upbeat number. The rock-out number of the album.

"The space..." - Very nice album closer. "Everyone is only everyone else".

I remember that initially I felt let down by Marillion on listening to this album for the first time as the sound had changed totally. Gone was the anger, the sarcasm, the disdain (at times) that dripped from Fish's vocals. This is a softer Marillion iteration however it is a very powerful album in its own right. The melodies throughout this are simply fantastic and although it is emotively different to Marillion MK 1 it is very powerfully emotive. Very much driven by Hogarth's voice as well as Rothery's lead guitar however the keyboards are up there as well. I had to learn to love Marillion all over again and with this album I felt that that may have been an easy thing to do. Later on I feel that the band lost the plot however but here they are exceptional and they released an exceptional album with this. Very easily a five star rating from me.