Marillion releasing a new album follows the same pattern this century. First way in advance you can pre-order same. If you do so within the first months you get your name printed in the booklet. More important you get a special edition usually a hardcover book with some very interesting artwork, plus a bonus DVD. I did so since Anoraknophobia and you can find either my or Josie's name in several releases. This is a nice extra and Marillion and their fans have a relationship that goes somewhat deeper than with most bands. I love Marillion since the early years, but I never came close to idolation that many of their Freaks show. There are so many bands I like and even day and mood can determine what band I am more in for. Marillion has an extra handicap, as their first four albums with Fish are absolute classics and all four among my al time favorite albums. When Hogarth joined the band remained very good (see my ordering of their latest albums, or attending Marillion weekends in England, The Netherlands and Portugal during the past twenty years). So I usually don't take too much notice of the pre-released songs or bits of each album and wait for a full album to come to me and enjoy same reading along with the lyrics. First impression usually Too much H to little Rothery, but then I start listening better.
One Hour Before It's Dark. That's what our parents told us in our youth when children still played on streets all the time. It also is relating to our last chance to save planet earth. The opening song Be Hard On Yourself (9:28) was pre-released and is a song about the environment, with several mood swings. A truly great opener that holds the first moving lyrics. If you are into poetic lyrics this album turned out to be a true gem."Cause of death, lust for luxury" is one of the beauties.
Reprogram the Gene (7:02) starts rocking with H singing "I don't want to be a boy, I don't want to be a girl, I want to be happy". Not sure if this is a message of support to the alpabet people. Marillion really were already woke, years before the term got invented. Often I said that if the world would live by Marillion rules, we would be so much better off. So where wokeness can get annoying at times rewriting history and art, when Marillion brings it to me I always agree. But the song rocks happily further until in the second part we go a bit deeper into the state of the world with environment and covid appearing in nice phrases to us 'We're clever enough, but is there a cure for us?"
Only a Kiss (0:39) is just a short intro and not a song
Murder Machines (4:21) is a rocking look at Covid. Again the main role is for the lyrics: "I put my arms around her and I Killed her with Love". What a find. The original CD version is a very nice song that should work fine live, being short and uplifting in spite of the lyrics.
The Crow and the Nightingale (6:35) was lyrically a mystery to me until I watched the guiding DVD. It is H telling about his relation towards Leonard Cohen. This is the first somg where the Choir Noir play a mayor role. The end of the song is one of the highlights of the album, where the choir adds a Floydian drama to the song, while Steve Rothery can prove again why he is the best guitarist in progrock.
Sierra Leone (10:54) is one of those epics that aren't really epic. Ever since the title track on This Strange Engine Marillion released songs that last very long, but could as well be three or four indivudual songs. Interesting how everyone has his own look at Marillion songs, as the reviewer in Aardschok called this the best song on the album, while to me it is both musically and lyrically the least interesting one by far.
Care (15:20) This is where all the beauty of 21st century Marillion meets. Go watch the DVD to see where the story behind maintenance drugs is coming from. On that same DVD Steve Rothery righteously says, that he can't think of any other band that moves you in such a way. The dramatic ending on both part III Every Call and part IV Angels on Earth si just sensational to me (combining Choir Noir with Rothery again). And then stating "The angels in this world are not in the walls of Churches" and the mural of the nurse in the booklet all together make this a highly emotional experience.
So when you though the album ended on it's high after 54 minutes, it did not. We get after minutes of silence a hidden track being a 12"remix of Murder Machines. Well that spoils the magical end Care gave us in a big way. A horrible electronic version after a silnce is two downers in one. Probably this made me at first a bit negative about the album. Nowadays I make sure I press stop after 54 minutes. If doing so we have one of the better Marillion albums of this century. Time will tell if for me it can stand somewhere inbetween Anoraknophobia and Sounds that Can't be Made, but it already surpassed all the others after MM. Now the question is will I see them performing these songs live? Probably not as they tour Holland when I am in Brazil and after last weekend's venue disaster in Lisbon I won't return there either. Still the album will make many spins still this year for sure. Once again thank you for the music and the emotion that comes with it.
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