It is always hard to declare one band as your true all-time favourite; but if I was forced to do so then one of the serious contenders would be the British band Marillion. I started listening to them casually in around 2007, and saw them live for the first time the following year at the Cambridge Rock Festival - with the show cementing my love for the band. Prior to the 2008 show, I had only really listened to the band's early albums - but I soon started to slowly amass their large catalogue. Happiness is the Road, the sprawling double album which released later the same year, then helped to focus my fandom; and I have never looked back. Marillion remain as important a part of my musical journey now as they did back in 2008 - so I have been a big fan now for around 14 years. I have managed to see them live nine times, too, with the most recent show coming in November 2021 - when the band played their first run of shows following the end of significant restrictions imposed by the UK government during the COVID-19 pandemic. The setlists throughout the tour generally focused on fan-favourite songs, which was probably wise given the nature of the shows, but the band did also debut a new song: Be Hard On Yourself; as part of it. Be Hard On Yourself was the first new Marillion material to be heard since 2016, when they released the fantastic Fuck Everyone and Run (which I reviewed here) - an album which many regarded as the band's best work in years. It reached number 4 in the Official UK Album Chart, and seemed to spearhead the band's recent rise in popularity - or at least the latest instalment of it. Marillion certainly hit a commercial low during the late 1990s and early 2000s, but have been gradually re-establishing themselves over the past couple of decades. Notwithstanding this, the band's recent rise has been great to see. Taking London as an example, on the tour proper for Fuck Everyone and Run the band headlined the O2 Forum in Kentish Town - a regular haunt in recent years. When the band toured last year, they managed to sell enough tickets to make two consecutive nights at the Eventim Apollo worth doing - and they will be returning to the venue again in September. Looking to capitalise on this, the band put some time aside over the last couple of years (which was planned, but became a necessity) to work on the follow-up to Fuck Everyone and Run. Marillion work quite slowly when it comes to new material these days, but their 20th studio album An Hour Before It's Dark was finally released last month - which was once again funded by the fans as every album since 2001's Anoraknophobia has been. Whilst the themes and overall sound throughout An Hour Before It's Dark are generally different to those found on Fuck Everyone and Run, the albums are structurally quite similar - with lengthy, multi-part epics sitting side-by-side with a handful of more contained musical ideas. This is a format that clearly works for the band at this point, with the longer-form pieces allowing for more experimentation and the shorter songs containing more punch or a stronger focus on digestible hooks.
It is fair to say that An Hour Before It's Dark has been another success for Marillion. It reached number 2 in the chart, beating Fuck Everyone and Run - with adverts for it sitting on the side of buses up and down the country; as well as on a number of London taxis. It was great to see Marillion really pushing themselves again from a marketing perspective, as An Hour Before It's Dark certainly deserves to be heard by a wide audience. It is an album that feels very current theme-wise, with both climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic featuring heavily throughout frontman Steve Hogarth's lyrics. It opens with the aforementioned three-part Be Hard On Yourself, a song which should already be familiar to most fans at this point. Despite being over nine minutes long, it is a song that is very easy to listen - and is full of a number of the band's recent trademarks. Fuck Everyone and Run was generally not a very upbeat album, and it is clear that the band have tried to rock a little harder this time. That is not to say that this new album is full of a fast-paced energy, but it certainly feels more kinetic - with Ian Mosley's drums throughout Be Hard On Yourself having more drive to them, whilst Mark Kelly's upbeat piano melodies give the verses an edge despite Hogarth's downbeat vocal delivery. As usual, it is Kelly that provides the soundscapes, but there seems to be more of a focus on keyboard melodies this time around - with lots of driving piano throughout Be Hard On Yourself that sits nicely alongside the layers of textures which he usually conjures up. Guitarist Steve Rothery adds big power chords to the track, too, which adds further depth - and the song feels a little heavier than much of the band's recent work. The second half of the track contains quite a few guitar leads, too, with the closing sections of the song's second section Lust for Luxury being packed with leads that back Hogarth's frantically escalating vocal melodies. The song's closing section, You Can Learn, pushes the energy further, and the song really starts to rock out at this point - before coming to a slow-burning close with dense keyboards and Hogarth's low-key vocal delivery.
The seven-minute Reprogram the Gene maintains the rocking vibes of Be Hard On Yourself, and is probably the most upbeat musically that the band have sounded for a while. The relative sparseness of the arrangement brings 1998's Radiation to mind at times, with more of a focus on Rothery's driving guitar lines - as well as a strong bass presence from Pete Trewavas. It is great to hear the band rocking out like this again, as it is not a sound that they have really tackled significantly for quite some time. There are moments that recall their more recent sounds, such as the opening sections of Trouble-Free Life, but generally the song maintains its punch - even if it becomes more piano-led as it moves along. There are some rather clunky lyrics in the song, however, which end up feeling quite ham-fisted - but thankfully these moments are relatively short-lived and do not detract from its overall bounce. Following the short instrumental piece Only a Kiss, which does not really stand on its own, the first of two shorter, more contained songs Murder Machines opens with a hypnotic drum groove and a strong vocal from Hogarth. Only a Kiss is really just an atmospheric intro for the latter, which is a punchy single that mixes some of the rock from the previous two songs with the band's more typical recent sounds. At times it reminds me a bit of Power from 2012's Sounds That Can't Be Made, as there is a similar approach taken from Rothery throughout from a guitar perspective - and comparisons can eb drawn between the overall vibe. There is a denseness to the song thanks to Kelly's keyboards, and I really like some of the old-school synth sounds that he has employed here. Kelly rarely plays 'lead' keyboards these days, and some of the synth melodies here remind me of the band's 1980s and early 1990s albums - but they are relatively subdued so as not to unduly stand out. The highlight of the song for me, however, is its chorus - which is arguably one of the band's catchiest for a while. It is a song that was clearly written to be a single, and in a fairer world is would be receiving a lot of radio play at the moment - as it is the sort of song that a lot of people would probably latch onto if they heard it.
The Crow and the Nightingale is the second of the two contained pieces, and it is the first song here that has quite significant musical similarities to Fuck Everyone and Run. After three relatively upbeat pieces, The Crow and the Nightingale is classic modern Marillion in that it is a dense, atmospheric, slow-burning song that focuses creating a strong vibe. Depth is added throughout by the string quartet In Praise of Folly, who have toured with the band a number of times in recent years, as well as choir - which is not something that Marillion have made use of often previously. The strings and the choir add a different edge to the song - and with both Hogarth and Kelly playing the piano throughout the track has a lot of different layers. It is also the first song on the album to really explode with a trademark Rothery guitar solo. There have been tasters of his lead playing up to this point, but his solo on this track really soars - recalling many of his previous efforts. It really helps the song to stand out, and I can see the song becoming a live favourite as a result. The 10-minute epic Sierra Leone follows, and it is probably the only song here that has not really clicked with me yet. It feels like a real throwback to Fuck Everyone and Run sound-wise, an album which I loved, so I am not sure why the song has not really opened up to me - although I am liking it more and more with each listen. It feels relatively sparse following the dense previous number, and the song is generally based around Kelly's piano playing - although it does expand in sound as it moves along, with Rothery becoming more of a focus by the time the third section The Diamond rolls around. This section starts to rock a little harder, and Hogarth's voice becomes more full-bodied - which nicely contrasts with his falsetto approach taken to the floaty The Blue Warm Air section that follows. For me, however, the best part of the song is the closing More Than Treasure - which features dark-sounding piano and Hogarth's effects-heavy vocals, as well as some more cutting Rothery guitar leads.
The album comes to a close with its longest piece, the 15-minute long Care - which seems to be intended as An Hour Before It's Dark's crowning glory. This seems to be the general consensus from the fanbase and, whilst I prefer some of the other pieces here, Care is a great song that covers a number of different musical vibes throughout. It opens in a somewhat funky manner, which harks back to some of the synth-heavy elements of 2004's Marbles. Trewavas' bass drives the song early on, while Mosley's drums lock in nicely with some additional percussion courtesy of session player Luis Jardim. As such, the early section of Care, Maintenance Drugs, sounds very different from everything else on the album up to this point. Kelly's keyboards, which have generally led the charge, largely just provide an atmospheric backing, with the band's rhythm section instead taking the lead - along with a strident Hogarth vocal and the occasional burst of Rothery lead guitar. The vibe shifts with the song's second part, the album's title track, and it once again dips into the atmospheric depth of the Fuck Everyone and Run sound. Effects-heavy guitar melodies and dense keyboards back a distant, wistful Hogarth vocal, and all of the early groove and industrial-esque drive of the song's opening moments are a thing of the past. This is a deliberate choice to enhance to song's emotional punch, moving from the mechanical routine of the song's opening section to something more deep and meaningful - which is clearly evident by the time that Every Cell is reached. Kelly's piano once again dominates this section, and another lengthy Rothery solo is included, which aches with his usual feel and perfect phrasing. By this point, the emotional impact of the song is very much entrenched, and Every Cell ends with Hogarth's delicate vocals against a piano backing - whilst a the introduction of a shimmering synth transitions the song into its final section: Angels on Earth.
It is with Angels on Earth, though, that I have to raise a minor criticism. I understand the sentiment of this part of the song, but for me it again feels quite ham-fisted lyrically - at least some of very repetitive lines referring to the angels of the song's title. I think that this section is the reason why Care is not my favourite song here, but I can understand why others think that it is. Some of the deifying of health workers, particularly during the pandemic, has never really sat well with me (along with any other pedestal-putting of any ordinary working person to make a point) - and parts of Angels on Earth very much take that tone. I really like the verses, despite some of the sentiments, and for me the song would have worked just as well without the repetitive lyrical sections which sound forced and overly sentimental. I do not wish to sound overly negative though as I do like the song a lot, including most of Angels on Earth, especially as it ends the album with a strong emotional climax. The problem is more with me I think, and this should not cloud anyone else's view of the song. That aside, and the few clunky lyrics in Reprogram the Gene, it is clear that An Hour Before It's Dark is another fantastic album from Marillion. I have enjoyed all of the band's albums to varying degrees, but with Fuck Everyone and Run and now An Hour Before It's Dark I think that the band are really outdoing themselves creatively in a big way. I am sure that my opinion on the album will only improve over time, as each listen reveals more to me, but I am already getting a lot from it. I love how it somewhat feels like a companion piece to Fuck Everyone and Run without relying too heavily on musical similarities to the band's 2016 opus, and it is certainly going to be an album that I listen to a lot going forward.
The album was released on 4th March 2022 via Intact Records/earMusic. Below is the band's promotional video for Murder Machines.
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