THE CAROL OF THE BELLS

This was the first time I'd listened closely to a non-Fish Marillion song. Steve Hogarth, Fish's replacement, is pretty good. I don't know much about this band outside of a few Fish-era classics, but do the other guys sing? The harmony vocals actually sound really good. I assumed it was mainly Hogarth until I heard "That's What Friends are For" - - also from their Christmas album - - and it sounds like the voices of at least two or three different people. 

"Carol of the Bells" is a hundred-year-old song, based on an even older melody, and over the past 30 years, when a rock band has recorded a Christmas album, this song had a good chance of appearing. While Robert Berry's 2002 prog-rock version (as the December People) is excellent, the all-time classic version, in my book, is "Sarajevo 12/24," Savatage's 1995 instrumental interpretation which spawned the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Marillion does a good job of avoiding a homage to "Sarajevo 12/24," which would have been fun and easy. Instead they focus on a vocal arrangement for the first two minutes before commencing with the inevitable rock instrumentation. The vocal arrangement continues until a soft orchestral interlude abruptly begins at 3:45. The well-known four-note motif ("ring, silver bells") gives way to the complimentary melody of the James Bond theme, and the band returns to offer a rock take on a few measures of John Barry's spy-film classic. Just after 4:40 guitarist Steve Rothery launches into a Marillion-style solo. In the final minute of the song, the interlude passage returns, and in a nod to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, the lead line of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" is woven into the old Ukrainian melody of "Carol of the Bells." But wait - - the rock won't stop just yet - - the song ends with a recapitulation of the Bond theme. 

Three stars for a good take on this well-worn classic.

P.S. The version I'm reviewing is 6:14. I downloaded it from emusic.com in November 2016. This appears to be the same as the version on bandcamp, but the version posted by marilliononline on YouTube on 12/15/13 has a reprise of about 1:20. "Carol of the Bells" is no longer on emusic, and is apparently only available on bandcamp as part of an album (for £7.99). However, as of March 2019, it is available for $0.99 on the US Amazon .mp3 store.