Seasons End (album) - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

"Musically, it's pretty much business as usual: the mature and busy percussion work of Ian Mosley always a delight to hear; Pete Trewavas' supple bass lines underpinning the beat with soft, wooded textures; Mark Kelly's keyboards and synthesizers as pert and delicate as ever; Steve Rothery's aching guitar lines used like brandy to lace the milk of the melodies. Tracks like 'King Of Sunset Town', 'Uninvited Guest', 'Hooks in You' (the first single) and the title track itself, 'Season's End', all cover familiar Marillion territory, endlessly refining the themes that have come to characterize their sound. 'Hooks in You', for example, is a direct descendant of 'Incommunicado', itself a not-so-distant relative of 'Market Square Heroes'. While the origins of 'Season's End' (the track) can be located quite easily in something like 'Warm Wet Circles', some of the less cluttered instrumental passages of Misplaced Childhood or, from the distant past 'The Web'. 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 all Queen's English. But there the comparisons end. Steve Hogarth is no Fish clone. He's no Peter Gabriel nor Phil 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 'Season's End' or 'After Me', you can almost forget the band ever had another singer."