Marillion - Seasons End

This was my favourite album in my teenage years, and I still have a soft spot for it. It's their first with new vocalist Steve Hogarth, who fit in perfectly to sing over the instrumental stuff they had already written. Maybe the band aren't that keen on it, being sort of patched together, but this was a breath of fresh air after the alcohol-sodden Clutching at Straws.

What I liked about it was probably the Marillion 'sound', the layers of keyboards, bell and string sounds, bell-like rhythm guitars and Steve Rothery's exquisite lead soloing. During their subsequent tour Hogarth used a "keyboard glove" gadget so he could put in the extra keyboard layers while he was singing and dancing in front of the mic, by just tapping the glove on his body!

Easter still makes me shiver, while other strong tracks include the title track and Berlin. Incidentally, in Berlin, Steve mentions mad-dog, shaven-head, bottle boy freaks / in Martens and khaki, drunk on sake. Sake. Hmmm, in Cold War Berlin. A pity 'beer' or 'schnapps' didn't rhyme...

May 14, 2003

8 out of 10

previous | next