Marillion
Season's End

We are in 1988, and Marillion, an English Progressive Rock band that has been on the continental stage for a few years, loses what is currently its most prized piece. After four albums and at least five years of success, much of which was achieved thanks to the concept album "Misplaced Childhood" from 1985, an album that includes the immortal "Kayleigh," a single that went around the world, the singer Derek Dick, better known as Fish, leaves slamming the door and without any apparent reason.
The band is left in a daze and without its most representative element, but it has no intention of delivering the De Profundis. They immediately begin working on a new album and simultaneously put an ad in the top music magazines to search for a new leader. Ian Mosley, the drummer, has the weekly task of stopping by the office to collect demo tapes sent by numerous candidates for Fish's throne. One fine morning, he comes across a recording by a certain Steve Hogarth, a somewhat unknown keyboardist and second voice of an equally obscure band called How We Live. He decides it's no longer worth further searching, identifying the young Hogarth as the new lifeblood for Marillion.
Steve, who from here on will be called "Mr. H" or, more simply "H," obviously accepts the invitation with good grace and actively participates in the finalization of what will become "Season's End," the first post-Fish Marillion album, contributing lyrics to already almost completed pieces and writing new tracks for his new group. One of these almost entirely made-in-Hogarth tracks is the splendid ballad "Easter," which will become the standout track of the new album and (possibly) the most beloved of all time by the band's fans. We reach late 1989, and the work finally sees the light of day.

The album opens with "The King of Sunset Town," a track that starts with a soft keyboard and then develops into a majestic intro featuring Steven Rothery's ever-vibrant guitar. The melody is splendid, especially in the refrain. The track leans more towards prog, if we want to categorize it, though it's not quite the prog rock the band proposed in earlier works. Instead, in its considerable beauty, it has a more immediate impact and is easy to listen to. It continues with the aforementioned wonderful "Easter" and then moves onto "The Uninvited Guest," which is essentially a rock piece but of the finest quality, with truly exceptional lyrics.
The title track "Season's End" is a slow piece of nearly nine minutes, never banal, never boring, with a vocal line that perfectly marries the minor key keyboard and guitar backdrop.
"Holloway Girl" is a nice prog track that starts with a plucked bass line, developing into a solid refrain with a very high vocal line, noteworthy for the non-intrusive use of keyboards and a clean guitar tastefully integrated into the piece's economy.
"Berlyn" is perhaps the masterpiece of the album. A minor key piece dedicated to the recently fallen wall, it opens with a subdued, slow keyboard backdrop, then divides into two parts. In the second part, intensity grows, as the drums push forward more insistently in a prog style with a truly beautiful syncopated rhythm change. H's vocal line reaches truly impressive peaks.
"Hooks in you" is the next track, which was originally released as the first single, fundamentally a melodic hard rock piece with syncopated interludes, very brief, in a major key, barely three minutes, with immediate appeal. An excellent launch song.
The album closes with "The Space," a track centered around the keyboard with stadium ballad tempos, nice guitar solo, and keyboards set to a string quartet, truly enjoyable.

In conclusion, "Season's End" is important for Marillion because with this album, they closed a great era, that of Fish, and opened a new cycle. Any band changing its singer surely has internal and external repercussions. Fans hearing their favorite songs sung by someone else with a completely different voice might be taken aback, and who could blame them? But this album and the subsequent tour represented, above all else, the rise of Steve Hogarth, who made even the most steadfast "Fish heads" reconsider that one can and should look forward.
"Season's End" is not Marillion's best album, it is not a point of arrival. It is a second genesis.