Seasons End |
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Released: September 25, 1989 Peak: -- US, 7 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 0.1 UK Genre: neo-progressive rock |
Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts.
Music and lyrics by Marillion (Hogarth, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley) unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 50:55 The Players:
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Rating:  4.032 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings)
Awards: (Click on award to learn more).
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About the Album: After four albums with Marillion, their lead singer Fish departed for a solo career. His “distinct voice and poetic prose made him the defining member of the band. One can only imagine how record executives held their collective breath as Steve Hogarth was brought in to take the reins. His first outing with the band, 1989’s Seasons End, removed all doubts about the band's future. Hogarth’s unique, expressive voice fit Marillion perfectly.” AMG His “flexible range and beautiful phrasing shine on the entire album.” AMG Whether “on the full-throttle rock assault of The Uninvited Guest or the emotional After You, Hogarth's singularity is unmistakable.” AMG Kerrang!’s Mick Wall called Hogarth’s voice “smooth as glass and emotive as hell…Steve Hogarth is no Fish clone…He doesn’t need to be. He’s got a voice of his own…you can almost forget the band ever had another singer.” WK The band wrote most of the material before Hogarth joined. Some of the initial attempts with Fish on vocals appear on the 1999 reissue of Clutching at Straws. They also commissioned John Helmer to write lyrics to many of the songs. Still, Hogarth did write lyrics for a couple of the songs. One was the “beautiful” AMG and “heartfelt Easter with its imaginative electric-acoustic arrangement, is another showcase for Hogarth’s talents.” AMG The song is his “plea for peace in Ireland.” AMG Hogarth also wrote The Space. He explained that the song grew out of an incident in which he saw a car parked too close to a tram and the tram tore the side of it off when it came down the road. Years later, Hogarth thought, “I was a bit like that tram when I probably ripped the side of a few things I hadn’t even felt and I hadn’t slowed down either and I probably hadn’t noticed. So the words came from that realization.” WK Several of the songs make political and social statements. The title cut addresses climate change while Berlin “describes the situation in the divided city of Berlin.” WK Helmer originally wrote The King of Sunset Town about poverty, but Hogarth modified it to address “the brutal oppression of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.” WK The line “And everyone assembled here / Remembers how it used to be / Before the 27th came” refers to the 27th Army who was involved in the massacre. WK “Marillion’s ability to write music whose ideals live and breathe in the listener continues…on the inspiring Holloway Girl, which dissects the injustice of incarcerating mentally ill female inmates (at England’s Holloway Prison) instead of placing them in appropriate psychiatric facilities.” AMG It specifically addressed “the imprisonment of Judith Ward in Holloway Prison for IRA bombings.” WK
Notes: A 1999 remaster includes a second disc with outtakes of "The Uninvited Guest," (also the 12" single version), "The King of Sunset Town," "Holloway Girl," "Seasons End," and "Berlin" as well as B-sides "The Bell in the Sea" (2 versions) and "The Release." |
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First posted 3/14/2008; last updated 3/6/2022. |
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