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Seasons End

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Seasons End is the fifth studio album by British neo-prog band Marillion, released in 1989. The album was the first to feature current lead vocalist Steve Hogarth, following the departure of former vocalist Fish in late 1988. It reached number 7 on the UK Albums Chart.

Seasons End
Studio album by
Marillion
Released25 September 1989
Recorded1989[1]
StudioHookend Recording Studios, Oxfordshire, England
GenreNeo-prog
Length47:35 (vinyl edition)
50:55 (single CD edition)
99:25 (double CD edition)
Label
Producer
Marillion chronology
The Thieving Magpie
(1988) 		Seasons End
(1989) 		Holidays in Eden
(1991)
Singles from Seasons End
  1. "Hooks in You"
    Released: 28 August 1989[2]
  2. "The Uninvited Guest"
    Released: 27 November 1989
  3. "Easter"
    Released: 19 March 1990
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
Hi-Fi News & Record ReviewA:2[4]
Progressiveworld.net[5]
Sputnikmusic3.7/5

Overview

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Following the departure of Fish, Marillion started to audition singers while writing the new album, and they eventually chose Steve Hogarth. The music for Seasons End was mostly written before Hogarth joined Marillion,[6] 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 by John 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".[7]

The bonus disc of the 1999 re-issue of Clutching at Straws contains a number of nascent versions of songs that would end up on Seasons 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 as The 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 and Nick Davis (who would go on to work with Genesis and associated acts). On 28 April 1989 the band went to Outside Studios at Hook End Manor, Stoke Row, Oxfordshire to record the album.[8]

Singles

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As with Marillion's previous two studio albums, three singles were released from Seasons End. The first single was "Hooks in You" in August 1989, followed by "The Uninvited Guest" in November and "Easter" in March 1990.

Cover art

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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,[9] who would continue working with Marillion after leaving the studio). The four square fields dominating the cover symbolise the four classical 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 album Clutching at Straws and related releases as well as on B'Sides Themselves (although the 1988 live retrospective The Thieving Magpie also used it). The feather in the "desert" square is a reference to the image of the "magpie" found on Misplaced Childhood (1985) and Fugazi, the "sky" square contains a fragment of the "Jester's" dress introduced on Script for a Jester's Tear (1983), the chameleon in the "fire" square appears on Script for a Jester's Tear, Fugazi (1984) and Misplaced Childhood; the painting with the clown's face falling into the water upside-down is taken from the Fugazi cover. Also, the vinyl version returned to the gatefold format that had been abandoned on the previous studio album.

Lyrics

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The lyrics on Seasons 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 the Tiananmen 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.[10] "Easter" addresses The Troubles of Northern Ireland (a topic Fish had previously explored in "Forgotten Sons" on 1983's Script for a Jester's Tear);[11] more indirectly, this also goes for "Holloway Girl", which refers to the imprisonment of Judith Ward in Holloway Prison for IRA bombings.[12] "Seasons End" addresses climate change (a topic to which Marillion would return in 1998 and 2007)[13] – 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 of Berlin, where Marillion had recorded Misplaced Childhood; the Berlin Wall would eventually come down just weeks after the release of Seasons End.[14]

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."[15]

Critical reception

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Mick Wall, writing in Kerrang!, 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 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 'Seasons End' or 'After Me', you can almost forget the band ever had another singer."[16]

Track listing

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  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" (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

Note: "After Me" is not included on a vinyl edition of the album.

Formats and re-issues

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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 a bonus track on the original CD and cassette versions. In 1997, as part of a series of Marillion's first eight studio albums, EMI re-released Seasons End with remastered 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.[17] It was identical to the original vinyl release from 1989, so "After Me" was not included.

Personnel

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Marillion

With:

  • Phil Todd: saxophone on "Berlin"
  • Jean-Pierre Rasle: pipes on "Easter"

Charts

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Chart performance for Seasons End
Chart (1989) Peak
position
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[18] 20
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[19] 11
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[20] 20
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[21] 28
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[22] 11
UK Albums (OCC)[23] 7
2023 chart performance for Seasons End
Chart (2023) Peak
position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[24] 166
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[25] 18
Scottish Albums (OCC)[26] 23
UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)[27] 5

Certifications

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Certifications for Seasons End
Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[28] Gold 100,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

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  1. ^ "Seasons End". marillion.com. 31 May 2014.
  2. ^ "New Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 26 August 1989. p. 50. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
  3. ^ "allmusic ((( Season's End > Overview )))". allmusic.com. Retrieved 5 January 2010.
  4. ^ Douthwaite, Karen (December 1989). "Review: Marillion — Seasons End" (PDF). Hi-Fi News & Record Review (magazine). Vol. 34, no. 12. Croydon: Link House Magazines Ltd. p. 139. ISSN 0142-6230. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 September 2021. Retrieved 28 September 2021 – via World Radio History.
  5. ^ "ProgressiveWorld.net". progressiveworld.net. Retrieved 5 January 2010.
  6. ^ Wilson, Rich (21 August 2016). ""You're All F**ked!" The story behind Marillion's 18th album F.E.A.R." Louder. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  7. ^ Prog magazine Marillion edition 2021. p.142. Words Dave Everley
  8. ^ Collins, Jon (2003). Separated Out The Complete History 1979-2002. Helter Skelter Publishing. p. 93.
  9. ^ "marillion.com | Racket Records Store". www.marillion.com. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  10. ^ "Marillion – Explanation of Song Elements – Warm Wet Circles". Marillion.baldyslaphead.co.uk. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
  11. ^ "Marillion – Explanation of Song Elements – Warm Wet Circles". Marillion.baldyslaphead.co.uk. 13 July 1994. Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
  12. ^ "Marillion – Explanation of Song Elements – Warm Wet Circles". Marillion.baldyslaphead.co.uk. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
  13. ^ Seasons End Archived 29 July 2012 at archive.today
  14. ^ "Marillion – Explanation of Song Elements – Warm Wet Circles". Marillion.baldyslaphead.co.uk. 23 September 1989. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
  15. ^ Marillion: Live from Cadogan Hall (DVD 1, track 5)
  16. ^ Mick Wall. "Pre-Season Friendlies". Kerrang!. 23 September 1989.
  17. ^ "Seasons End". marillion.com. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  18. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Marillion – Seasons End" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  19. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Marillion – Seasons End" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  20. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Marillion – Seasons End". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  21. ^ "Swedishcharts.com – Marillion – Seasons End". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  22. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Marillion – Seasons End". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  23. ^ "{{{artist}}} | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  24. ^ "Ultratop.be – Marillion – Seasons End" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  25. ^ "Album Top 40 slágerlista – 2023. 21. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  26. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  27. ^ "Official Rock & Metal Albums Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  28. ^ "British album certifications – Marillion – Seasons End". British Phonographic Industry.
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Liner notes for the remaster by some of the band members and associated people (on the marillion.com band page):

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