| Seasons End | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 25 September 1989 | |||
| Recorded | 1989[1] | |||
| Studio | Hookend Recording Studios, Oxfordshire, England | |||
| Genre | Neo-prog | |||
| Length | 47:35 (vinyl edition) 50:55 (single CD edition) 99:25 (double CD edition) | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer |
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| Marillion chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Seasons End | ||||
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Seasons End is the fifth studio album by Britishneo-prog bandMarillion, released in 1989. The album was the first to feature current lead vocalistSteve Hogarth, following the departure of former vocalistFish in late 1988. It reached number 7 on theUK Albums Chart.
Following the departure of Fish, Marillion started to audition singers while writing the new album, and they eventually choseSteve Hogarth. The music forSeasons End was mostly written before Hogarth joined Marillion,[3] and only a couple of songs on it actually have some pieces written by him, these being "Easter" and "The Space". A number of the lyrics were written byJohn Helmer, who the band had commissioned before Hogarth joined. Helmer would continue to contribute lyrics throughout the 1990s. "The Space" was partly recycled from an unreleased song by Hogarth's old band How We Live titled "Wrapped in the Flag".[4]
The bonus disc of the 1999 re-issue ofClutching at Straws contains a number of nascent versions of songs that would end up onSeasons End with vocals and lyrics by Fish, these demos having been produced during the writing sessions for the ill-fated fifth studio album with Fish. (A number of the lyrical concepts from these demos, such asThe Voice in the Crowd, would later resurface on Fish's debut studio album,Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors.)
The album was produced jointly by Marillion andNick Davis (who would go on to work withGenesis and associated acts). On 28 April 1989 the band went toOutside Studios at Hook End Manor, Stoke Row, Oxfordshire to record the album.[5]
As with Marillion's previous two studio albums, three singles were released fromSeasons End. The first single was "Hooks in You" in August 1989, followed by "The Uninvited Guest" in November and "Easter" in March 1990. "Easter" was released as in cassette format in 19 March 1990 and in other formats 26 March 1990.[citation needed] It became a UK Top 40 hit when issued as a single in 1990.[citation needed] As with many Marillion songs, the album version features an extended guitar solo bySteve Rothery, which has become a fan-favourite, although it is heavily edited for the single version. The song was written by singerSteve Hogarth before he joined the band in 1989[6] and was inspired byThe Troubles in Northern Ireland. The title is in reference toEaster 1916 byWilliam Butler Yeats. Portions of the music video were filmed on theGiants Causeway.
Mark Wilkinson, who had designed all previous Marillion covers, had been asked to provide the artwork but declined, as the band wanted to have a landscape painting, which wasn't his style.[citation needed] Wilkinson would continue to collaborate with Fish, designing the album covers for almost all his solo albums. Therefore, the album also marked a turning point in the band's visual style, towards a more "modern", photographic look created by Bill Smith Studio (including Carl Glover,[7] who would continue working with Marillion after leaving the studio). The four square fields dominating the cover symbolise the fourclassical elements, earth, air, water and fire (clockwise from top left). At the same time, the cover contained some references to the past: It used the band's original logo, which had been replaced with a "modernised" version on the previous albumClutching at Straws and related releases as well as onB'Sides Themselves (although the 1988 live retrospectiveThe Thieving Magpie also used it). The feather in the "desert" square is a reference to the image of the "magpie" found onMisplaced Childhood (1985) andFugazi, the "sky" square contains a fragment of the "Jester's" dress introduced onScript for a Jester's Tear (1983), thechameleon in the "fire" square appears onScript for a Jester's Tear,Fugazi (1984) andMisplaced Childhood; the painting with the clown's face falling into the water upside-down is taken from theFugazi cover. Also, the vinyl version returned to thegatefold format that had been abandoned on the previous studio album.
The lyrics onSeasons End, unlike those of the two previous albums, are not tied together by a common storyline. The opener, "The King of Sunset Town", in John Helmer's original version, was about poverty; however, Hogarth modified it under the impression of the brutal oppression of theTiananmen Square protests of 1989 by the Chinese government; the line "And everyone assembled here / Remembers how it used to be / Before the 27th came" refers to the 27th Army involved in the massacre.[8] "Easter" addressesThe Troubles of Northern Ireland (a topic Fish had previously explored in "Forgotten Sons" on 1983'sScript for a Jester's Tear);[9] more indirectly, this also goes for "Holloway Girl", which refers to the wrongful imprisonment ofJudith Ward inHolloway Prison for IRA bombings; she was released from prison in 1992, three years after this album's release.[10] "Seasons End" addressesclimate change (a topic to which Marillion would return in 1998 and 2007)[11] – the spelling of the title is intentional, referring not to the end of a season (which would be "Season's End"), but the end of all seasons as a result of global warming eliminating winter altogether. "Berlin" describes the situation in the divided city ofBerlin, where Marillion had recordedMisplaced Childhood; the Berlin Wall would eventually come down just weeks after the release ofSeasons End.[12]
Regarding "The Space", Steve Hogarth has said that "this song kind of started life in Amsterdam. When I was quite young I saw a tram come down the road and someone had parked a car too close to the tram line. It came down the road and it just tore the side off this car because it couldn't do anything else. It made the most fantastic noise as it did so. Fortunately there was nobody in the car and fortunately the trams in Amsterdam are very thick so I'm not sure the driver even noticed it happen. Years later when I was feeling a bit more like a rock star than I did when I saw it happen, I was thinking about my life. It occurred to me that 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 to this song came from that realization. It was one of the first songs we put together when we met in January of 1989."[13]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [14] |
| Hi-Fi News & Record Review | A:2[15] |
| Progressiveworld.net | [16] |
Mick Wall, writing inKerrang!, stated, "Vocally and lyrically, of course, we find ourselves on new ground. Hogarth's certainly got a voice, smooth as glass and emotive as hell. And, in common with his more famous predecessor, it's a very un-American voice, the vowel sounds are allQueen's English. But there the comparisons end. Steve Hogarth is no Fish clone. He's noPeter Gabriel norPhil Collins apologist, either. He doesn't need to be. He's got a voice of his own – and when you listen to it on tracks like 'Easter', and 'Seasons End' or 'After Me', you can almost forget the band ever had another singer."[17]
Allmusic reviewer describes "Easter" as "heartfelt" with an "imaginative electric-acoustic arrangement".[18]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The King of Sunset Town" | Steve Hogarth,Steve Rothery,Mark Kelly,Pete Trewavas,Ian Mosley,John Helmer | 8:04 |
| 2. | "Easter" | Hogarth, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley | 5:58 |
| 3. | "The Uninvited Guest" | Hogarth, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley, Helmer | 3:52 |
| 4. | "Seasons End" | Hogarth, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley, Helmer | 8:10 |
| 5. | "Holloway Girl" | Hogarth, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley | 4:30 |
| 6. | "Berlin" | Hogarth, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley, Helmer | 7:48 |
| 7. | "After Me" (Not included on vinyl edition) | Hogarth, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley | 3:20 |
| 8. | "Hooks in You" | Hogarth, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley, Helmer | 2:57 |
| 9. | "The Space…" | Hogarth, Rothery, Kelly, Trewavas, Mosley | 6:14 |
The album was originally released on CD, Cassette, vinyl LP and 12" Picture Disc. "After Me", the b-side of "Hooks in You", was included as abonus track on the original CD and cassette versions.In 1997, as part of a series of Marillion's first eight studio albums, EMI re-releasedSeasons End withremastered sound and a second disc containing bonus material. The bonus disc contained the extended 12" version of the album's second single, "The Uninvited Guest", that single's b-side "The Bell in the Sea", the third single "Easter"'s b-side, "The Release", and six demo versions. The remastered edition was later also made available without the bonus disc.
A new 180 gram vinyl pressing was released in February 2012 by EMI.[19] It was identical to the original vinyl release from 1989, so "After Me" was not included.
Marillion
With:
| Album chart (1989) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[20] | 20 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[21] | 11 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[22] | 20 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[23] | 28 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[24] | 11 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[25] | 7 |
| Album chart (2023) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[26] | 166 |
| Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[27] | 18 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC)[28] | 23 |
| UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)[29] | 5 |
| "Easter" (1990) | Position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart | 34 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[30] | Gold | 100,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
Liner notes for the remaster by some of the band members and associated people (on themarillion.com band page):
