SEASONS END

After their colorful lyricist and lead singer ("Fish" aka Derek W. Dick) jumped ship, Marillion were left to pick up the pieces and reassemble them meaningfully, and that they did but good! Using some of the music they had written while Fish was still in the band, they took on new boy Steve Hogarth, rewrote the libretto, and discovered their second wind.

This is a wonderful set of songs if not quite picking up where Marillion left off stylistically under Fish's influence. Highlights of "Season's End" include the title track -- addressing climate change when hardly anyone was thinking about it yet -- and "King Of Sunset Town" which goes from utterly quiet, adding instruments subtly and gradually into the mix, until an incredible cathartic mid-section and end is reached. "H" has arrived....

But there is also "Easter," a powerful vocal and instrumental tour-de-force from the band (in this case with echoes of Irish folk music) that transports me to a place of such ecstasy that I'd swear I am rolling in four-leaf clover; and it boasts one of the most gorgeous, lyrical guitar solos ever from Steve Rothery. The remaining songs are just fine: Marillion would go on to do better things, but this shows that the group retained all of the talent and spirit they had prior to the split with Fish. This album is a musical documentary of a group in transition, and essential for those who dig the "h" era of Marillion.