Marillion - An Hour Before It's Dark

Thank you! Your review was great as well. I found the "misery doesn't love company" approach to be an interesting one; I suppose my point when writing my review was that I still perceived the record as having silver linings for the listener to grab onto, even during the most depressing sections. For instance, the lyrics at the end of Care, which praise the hospital workers as "angels". I will say, I really wish I touched on some of the shorter tracks as well; Murder Machines was an excellent single, and I like how it ties in with Care thematically. 

I posted my review yesterday if anyone wants to take a look on the album page 

Aways interested in your thoughts, Steve. That is a very honest review, so respect as always.

FEAR was released in 2016, not 2012. It anticipated very well the arguments in the UK regarding Brexit, and was very farsighted regarding the dirty money flowing through my country.

As for An Hour Before It’s Dark, the band have revisited some familiar themes, especially climate change. However, it is not all doom and gloom. The Crow and the Nightingale is a tribute to Leonard Cohen and Sierra Leone is a track about the place. The latter I have not quite appreciated fully yet, but the former is a wonderful track. Murder Machines and The Cure are, as I have said before, classics from the band. I am still listening to the opening track to fully appreciate it, but Reprogram The Gene I love.

There is a fine balance between lecturing and haranguing an audience, and, by and large, I feel that Marillion get it right. The musicianship is exceptional, and it is pitched at the right level for these times. As I have said before, a few more listens required before I review, but, for me, a very strong four star album at this stage. We are lucky we are still able to debate such a fine band after all this time.

Yes, this. I gave it a play this afternoon and pumped up the volume, in spite of working. It gets better with each listen, rather like a fine wine.

Hi,

SHUDDER ... COUGH .... SPIT .... GAG ... 

I don't think that SW has the depth of lyrical words, to create something like Marillion has done. In that sense, PT won't even make it to number 100 for me. Specially when the sample we heard had the worst drumming we ever put our ears to! Why not use a metronome, or a VST, instead? It would have been better.

I am not sure that PT will stand up as well anymore. I think they have lost a lot, and they gave up on their last album (the double) that a lot of people thought was an overkill ... which I'm 50/50 on, but it would have made a much better and stronger single album if it was not a double! In other words, SW did not know when not to say something and allow the band to talk with their instruments ... and this part is the one that will hurt them in the new effort. I would love to see them "float" a bit more again, like they did for so long ... but the main issue, and it goes back to the early SW stuff is that he was a pop person, and I think that too much of PT in its new form will be very pop oriented, and to me, that will kill the band. And, honestly, if that happens, deservedly so!

As far as the lyrical work, Marillion, these days, stands alone ... they are not "out of time" and are concurrent with the events, and on par with helping us understand the whole thing, and honestly, just like the old days in Madison and Chicago marching for some things, this is fine with me ... it is meaningful and not just a bunch of NOTHING WORDS that can not stand up after the 6 PM news! 

I trust the words from Marillion. I trust the words from Peter Hammill (for another example), just like I trusted the words from Daevid and Gilly ... they were REAL PEOPLE and they stood out for me in their completeness and wholeness and humanity ... I don't have any kind of similar feeling for SW, and I am not into idol worship or care! In fact, I find a lot of his work, sometimes, winded and opinionated, specially about something meaningless. It probably was way better in HAND.CANNOT.ERASE but while there were a couple of things that were special and nice, in the end, the rest was not as strong. Ninet's piece in that album is the very best that SW can do, but I am not sure he has anything like it any more ... that piece was more about Ninet than it was about SW ... and it had a sincere feeling, that SW does not always show, as if he has to hide behind his ideas and thoughts.