MARILLION - FUCK EVERYONE AND RUN
The review below was written in 2016. The passage regarding the oligarchs of The New Kings was prescient, given the outrageous invasion of Ukraine by Putin in 2022. Our complicity in this is encapsulated wonderfully in an album of genius.
FEAR, or, to put it a little bit more bluntly, Fuck Everyone And Run, is the eighteenth studio album by Marillion, keenly anticipated by those of us who crowd funded the venture via Pledge Music what seems like eons ago. When my cd arrived, gloriously on time, on 23rd September, it was signed by the band, and I took myself into the dungeon of my study to immerse myself into new music by my favourite band.
A little over an hour later, I went back into the sitting room and the metaphorical bosom of my lovely wife. "Well, how was it?". "Erm, okay, well, I'm sure it will turn out really good". Not exactly a ringing endorsement, in all honesty.
This feeling stayed with me for the first three listens. Then, over the next couple of listens, the album began to connect. Then, it hit me.
This is not an album that you walk away from early thinking it has classic written all over it. It is just about the slowest slow burner I have ever known. But, when it does hit you, by God, it is like a sledgehammer, because this is an extremely special piece of work.
For me, it was towards the end of the second phase of El Dorado, The Gold, when the band do what they have always done at their best, a multi-layered wall of sound accompanying a deliciously beautiful Steve Rothery solo.
The piece itself introduces us gently with some birdsong, before a rather ominous second sub-section, with Kelly roaring, announces itself to us with a delicate interplay between the band, a gentle piano recurring throughout the work, before said wall of sound asserts itself with some huge passages of wonderfully produced power - no review of this album, by the way, could go without mentioning with a great deal of respect the work Mike Hunter has put in to bringing out the best of his musical charges. The FEAR sub-section then brings the listener into the intensity and emotion of all that follows perfectly.
I do not think that the band themselves have ever sounded better. Mark Kelly is plastered all over this work, with a mixture of intelligent sounds that deceive with their apparent simplicity, although the key word here is apparent, because his efforts simply lead the band in both direction and tone. This is quite simply the sound of a keys player who has become the genre's finest modern exponent.
Steve Rothery adds some lovely trademark touches (and it is still the case that a towering Rothery performance is the key to a towering Marillion performance), whether it be by virtue of his effectively rhythm guitar backing swirling keys, to lead guitar bursts which make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, whilst Pete Trewavas and Ian Moseley are quite simply doing well what they have always done well, leading the charge with a backdrop which, at turns, excites, and then drags the music back to the mellow places it intended.
And what of the vocalist and lyricist I admire above all others, a certain Mr h? The title of the album is stark, to say the least. Fuck Everyone And Run. Fuck them all. The rich bastards responsible for digging ever deeper the grave of poverty of ordinary people around the world. The abandonment of the traditional country, and values, on the sword of run-away capitalism. This, combined with some deeply personal lyrics as well, is a forceful statement by a man who is approaching his sixties, and feels he has to make his feelings clear to the world, and life, before it becomes too late. He manages it with aplomb, not a celebrity moaning in the pages of a cheap "lifestyle" mag, but setting his thoughts out plainly in a wonderfully sincere work of art.
And the songs? Living In Fear, which follows El Dorado, is one of those hugely enjoyable Marillion tracks which combines progressive rock with commercial sensibilities, and fairly races along, with the band moving things along at an incredible rock pace, pushing Hogarth's vocals to the very limit. The Kelly lead two thirds in when there is a short pause in the intensity is lovely, this before the pace becomes something akin to Usain Bolt on speed, with a soaring guitar and band accompanying a choral mix of screams.
What follows next, though, is simply a classic, a track which deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as past glories such as The Great Escape, Neverland, Real Tears for Sale, and The Invisible Man. The Leavers is a staggering creation, and one which, above all, requires a very patient set of listening sessions before being fully appreciated. The track itself is split into five sub-sections, telling the story of The Leavers and Remainers. It is not, by the way, a reference to the Brexit debate in the recent UK EU referendum - the lyrics were, I believe, written well before that. As with all the finest lyrical songs, there is ample room for the listener to put his/her own interpretation on what the writer is trying to convey. Subsequent interviews tell us that the Remainers were the band’s family, left behind by The Leavers going on tour, as ever with Hogarth, there is more than enough room for differing interpretations.
This track has some sublime moments. It features all that is best about the later work of this great band, from staggeringly intense rock to the sublime interplay, delicately phrased, between Rothery, Kelly, and Trewavas (who is more and more a bassist in the Squire and Entwistle tradition of playing lead with his instrument) on part three. The piano work on this, by the way, adds such a delicate layer of subtle beauty to proceedings that you stare agog at the speakers, with this and Hogarth's fragile voice crying at you. Then, midway through part four, Jumble of Days, one of the most urgent of Rothery solos cries out plaintively, with an incredible wall of sound from Kelly backing. The intensity of the music towards the end, "you won't be much use to us dead", is astounding. The pace relaxes again in the intro to part five, One Tonight, with some delicate guitar and piano underlaid by a sensitive Trewavas riff, before there comes one of those rare moments in music. One of those moments, when the band turn up the intensity to White Heat, before Hogarth, who has never sounded better than in this section, cries out with such feeling to break your heart, "We Come Together", and then Rothery sings to us against a backdrop of pure lovely noise, and at the end you just have to hit the pause button, have a drink, have a cigarette, just simply take a break to recover. Simply wonderful, and up there at the top, end of.
White Paper is the most personal lyrically on the album, with those lovely keyboard textures backing Hogarth bearing his soul. This is a mournful and deeply moving prog ballad, accompanied by bursts of urgent energy musically, and has nothing of filler in it whatsoever.
The album has three main tracks, spilt into sub-sections, over fifteen minutes long (and if that does not have true prog fans slavering at the mouth, then, really, nothing will), and the last of these is The New Kings. This was the track made available a few weeks prior to the official album release as a download to keep us "pre-orderers'" happy. I gave it a few listens, but it was not really until I heard it in the context of the whole album that I really began to appreciate this fine piece of music.
It is, by far, the most political lyric ever set to music by the band. It continues a fine tradition begun, all those years ago, by Forgotten Sons. Indeed, I would place a fair wager that a certain Mr Dick would rather wish he had written this. Quite honestly, it does not really matter what your politics, because Hogarth sets to music the indelible unfairness of a system which allows such avarice and greed to go unchecked, with such awful consequences to the rest of the ordinary population. Musically, it takes the themes of the opener to their natural conclusion, and it is here that the track works so well. The cover of Brave proclaimed that we should play it loud, with the lights out. This one is the same, because it absolutely soars in places, and is incredibly intense, with Moseley and Trewavas never sounding so good at shoving the music along, a lead rhythm section to beat all others. I adore the female vocals which adorn parts of sub-section four, Russia's Locked Doors. We are all, in one way, or another, working for The New Kings, who are truly "too big to fail", and the band provide us with an incredible wall of sound to emphasise the pain and intensity which those lyrics correctly convey, especially when we listen to the emotions plaintively put across at the staggering and scary happenings when a passenger jet, full of innocent families, is brought down by Russian state missiles. The closing section, Why Is Nothing Ever True, is as heavy as the band have ever sounded, and the dripping venom of the lyrics panning those who got us all into this sorry state hit home with unerring accuracy.
To close, we have the inevitable short comedown that is Tomorrow's New Country, an opportunity for us all to come down as gently as is possible, given the raw emotion which preceded it.
This is an incredible album. It is an album which absolutely demands repeated listening, not just to "get it" in the first instance, but to grow to appreciate just what a work of staggering musical art it is. This album is right up there with the band's finest. It deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Script, Brave, This Strange Engine, and Marbles. I cannot award it anything less than a masterpiece rating.
A final thought. There are not many bands who, eighteen studio works in, can still lay claim to being able to record and release such vital and relevant music.
A masterpiece of modern progressive rock music, which comes extremely highly rated.
DAVID BOWIE - BLACKSTAR
The most incredible swansong ever recorded, a towering work of a dying genius.
Blackstar is the swansong of a genius, a generational icon, a superstar whose face and music were plastered all over the media of my youth in the 70’s and 80’s. It is difficult for people in their 30’s and younger reading this to realise just how huge David Bowie was.
Yet, there are many rock music fans, especially those of the progressive persuasion such as I, who will tell you that they lost interest years ago. In my case, Let’s Dance in 1983 was the unforgiveable end. It was simply dreadful, and nothing I heard after that, including Tin Machine, persuaded me otherwise.
So when Blackstar was released and knowing the tragic circumstances behind its conception and recording, it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I “accepted” the invitation from those nice algorithm chaps at YouTube to watch Lazarus. I was blown away. It is one of the finest creations ever recorded.
Then even this was eclipsed by the broody, jazz-infused, title track itself. Bowie’s farewell to us all and a quite remarkable feat from a man known to have a morbid fear of death.
The rock theatre of ‘Tis A Pity She Was A Whore. Dollar Days is a track which could quite easily have been written in the 70’s heyday. There is not one weak moment on this album.
Death is the natural end of us all. Few, however, can turn its impending certainty into such an inspirational statement as this album, a work which is a fitting commentary on stardom, life, and our collective mortality.
BIG BIG TRAIN - FOLKLORE
NOTE – THIS REVIEW WAS WRITTEN IN 2016. SUBSEQUENT EVENTS MAKE THIS STATEMENT PRETTY BITTERSWEET.
Folklore is the ninth studio album released by BBT and was an instant top five album for me in 2016. It develops the themes inherent in English Electric, particularly the second part, and sees, for me, the band developing very nicely into the natural successor to one of our finest, and best loved, pastoral progressive rock acts of the classic era.
What, another Genesis tribute allegation, you ask? No, not a bit of it. This band, not particularly in terms of approach, but most definitely in terms of their use of English lore and joyous storytelling of our heritage are, to me, the modern day Jethro Tull. Think of that band's wonderful folk rock period between Songs from the Wood and Broadsword...., transport it into the 21st century, and here we go. London Plane, with its tale of a boat squadron on course to Runnymede, could quite easily fit in on any one of those Tull masters. The chorus of this soars.
The album explodes into sound with the title track. Pure folk prog, with Longden's flute and Rachel Hall's exceptional violin playing right to the fore. The latter, to me, is a very welcome addition to this band. Her playing on this and the live set released on Stone and Steel are exceptional, and her backing to Longden's feeling lead vocals complement each other very well.
The band now boast eight members, living in disparate areas of not just the UK, but literally the world, with Rikard Sjoblom adding important textures on guitars and keyboards, and the drummer from America who I regard as being the finest modern exponent of the trade, Nick D'Virgilio. His work shines on this, and both also contribute backing vocals, making the band sound throughout as a vocal and instrumental symphony.
Along The Ridgeway uses both Hall's violin and the welcome return of the brass section to great effect. It segues effortlessly into Salisbury Giant, a huge figure which one adorned pageants in medieval Wiltshire, now housed in a museum there. These are gentle pieces, with intelligent use of orchestration creating a solemn, thoughtful, mood. Longden sings it beautifully. I fell in love with his voice on the wonderful Martin Orford swan song, The Old Road, and he is, to me, a world class vocalist.
Brass and violin also introduce us to the exceptional The Transit Of Venus Across The Sun. The lyrics, vocals, and music take me back many years to when I was a young man fascinated by the vastness of the visible night sky and wondering just what it would be like to fly there, a la James T Kirk. You are taken to this place on the "so many words left unsaid" sequence before Dave Gregory produces a scintillating guitar solo leading the entire outfit in a symphonic burst of pure noise. Quite lovely.
Wassail has attracted some criticism. It is beyond me why. When I first heard it on the EP release of the same name in 2015, I knew we were in for a real old treat with the forthcoming album. Whilst the accompanying video, costumes, and all, might seem a tad corny, this is prog folk at its most powerful, with swirling keyboards and thunderous riffs, led by Spawton on bass and D'Virgilio on drums moving things along at a fair old pace. The story itself is of pagans travelling between houses and orchards wassailing, boozing to hearty effect on Wassail, a rather strong mulled cider.
There is one track on the album that I still struggle to "get", and that is Winkie. The story behind the song is straightforward enough, that of a World War Two flying hero. It is played well enough, with the drums especially moving things along swiftly, and Longden evokes true emotion in The North Sea passage when radio contact with the plane is lost. However, it is, to me, slightly too breathless and wordy at times to truly impress. Great in parts, but not as a whole.
The epic length track on the album, clocking in at 12.40 minutes, is Brooklands. This venue, of course, was the world's first motor racing circuit, and the track evokes all of the romance and thrill which that venue brought to the pioneers who raced there, the smells of the engines, and the crowds who followed the sometimes dangerous exploits of the participants. I love the thoughtful guitar lead, whilst D'Virgilio excels on a tuneful drum pattern, with Spawton producing a deep, growling, bass line. A great story and tribute to a time long passed away, this is intellectual prog folk at its peak. The section leading to the denouement has the entire band, keys, flute, violin, rhythm, guitar stretching themselves to the limit, before we come down to earth gently with a delicate vocal.
All which precedes, though, leads up to the biggest thrill, the final track, the sumptuous and beautiful Telling The Bees. I didn't think that the band could better Hedgerow, to me a highlight of prog rock in all the time I have listened to this great genre. This one does it, in spades. It plays to every strength this great band have. It aches with emotion, and has, at its heart, the memories of a loved father, honoured in custom by telling the bees of a life and love. "The joy is in the telling", and the telling is a wonderful noise. This song evokes memories of loved ones no longer with me, and I sing it at the top of my voice, but with love and fond memories, not sadness, the way such fond memories are meant to be. This is a gloriously uplifting track, and yet another reminder of why this band are so special. Listen and let the emotion wash over you.
This is yet another fine release by a band who I hope will continue to carry the torch of quality English progressive rock for many years to come.
KING CRIMSON - RADICAL ACTION TO UNSEAT THE HOLD OF MONKEY MIND
An essential live offering.
In 2016, there were three fine live releases. This, Steve Hackett live in Liverpool, and Big Big Train Stone & Steel. This is, more than the others, such a seminal statement.
There have been many incarnations of this great band, the act who, many argue, started off the whole genre of progressive rock in 1969 with In The Court of the Crimson King. The “classic” Wetton, Bruford, Cross, and Fripp incarnation was my personal favourite. The difference between this and the 1980’s reincarnation with Belew, Levin, Bruford, and Fripp was simply massive, and then the band morphed into what can only really be described as industrial metal.
Eclectic, or what? When Fripp called a halt to proceedings again, we all assumed that we would never hear from them again. But in 2011, we had a new KC “Projeckt”, namely Jakko Jakszyk, Fripp, and Mel Collins with the superb A Scarcity of Miracles. The recording of this, and the subsequent positive reaction, persuaded Fripp to go at it once more, but in typically eccentric style, he completely reimagined his baby again, most notably with the “triple-headed beast” – three drummers taking front and centre stage. Pat Mastellotto, Bill Rieflin, and Gavin Harrison drive this incarnation with the wonderful Tony Levin on bass & sticks. Jakszyk is a revelation on guitars and especially on vocals, and Mel Collins looks and sounds as if he is having the time of his life. As for Fripp, he is at the top of his game, a master directing and conducting his rock and jazz ensemble.
This line-up are responsible for perhaps the greatest gig of my life. This triple CD or live Blu-Ray deserves to be devoured and appreciated in one giant sitting. It encapsulates every single phase of the band’s long career and does so in a wonderfully original manner, the improvisation, and interpretations as strong as ever.
As essential a live album as you are likely to ever hear. Below is the version of Starless - the greatest “mellotron moment” of them all.
MANTRA VEGA - THE ILLUSION’S RECKONING
Mantra Vega is a collaboration between Heather Findlay, the original female vocalist of Mostly Autumn, and Dave Kerzner, an American multi-instrumentalist and producer who seems to have worked with just about anybody and everybody in progressive rock. They are joined by an array of extremely talented guests, including Angela Gordon, Findlay’s erstwhile bandmate and partner in Odin’s Dragonfly, Roger Waters collaborator Dave Kilminster, the exceptional Troy Donockley, and, perhaps a wee bit more unexpectedly, Arjen Lucassen.
This is a wonderful album. It is not a traditional progressive rock album. Instead, it is a wonderfully eclectic mix of sounds and influences, just about everything from Fleetwood Mac in their pomp, to folk, to Americana, to heavy rock, to pure commercial bombast. There is nary a weak moment on an album which is a joy to listen to from start to finish. In fact, just about the only disappointing facet of this work is the fact that the project has not, thus far, been reprised.
JON ANDERSON & ROINE STOLT - INVENTION OF KNOWLEDGE
A collaboration between the Yes & Flower Kings legends. It really was impossible for it to be a dud!
2016 finds a certain Prog God in marvellously rude health and top form. The aforesaid award for Jon Anderson was, in my opinion, thoroughly well deserved. There is a tour, long promised, with fellow Yes cohorts Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman, which, to all accounts, seems to have been extremely well received. And, to start off the year, this collaboration with Roine Stolt, he of Flower Kings fame, with more than a little contributed by a stellar backing band, including the marvellous Jonas Reingold, Stolt's Kings collaborator on bass, and the wonderful Tom Brislin on keys (whose piano work especially on Chase and Harmony is clear and uplifting), this marking a return to working with Anderson.
The album was created over the Internet, Anderson's preferred method of recording, with vocals and musical ideas and compositions sent to each protagonist over the ether. The idea started when Stolt and the Transatlantic boys had Anderson singing Yes classics with them on one of those prog cruise trips which are in vogue now.
Structurally, the album is, understandably, an attempt to recreate the feel of Yes classics from the Topographic symphonic heyday, although, perhaps more than many others who have commented on the album, I feel that Stolt and his unique Flower Kings sound and feel is also stamped over the work. It is not a collection of songs, as such, but a group of suites joining together to segue into a whole body of work. I also think that the Topographic comparison was a clever marketing ploy to bring us classic Yes fans on board. They needn't have bothered, because the album stands up more than well enough on its own as a symphony of modern progressive rock, utilising the latest technology and loving production to bring a vision to life.
Does it work? Undeniably, yes. Those who do not buy in to Anderson's mystical view of life, the universe, and everything, will probably not be converted by this, because it is very much his lyrical creation, in keeping with many of his better solo albums. I do buy into this, so it is not a problem for me.
For the first few listens, in fact, you do feel that he is in danger of drowning out the music lyrically and vocally. It is not the case, however, when you become familiar with the album and allow it to wash over and influence you, for example allowing the sheer lifting beauty of We Are Truth, with Anderson sounding better than he has in years, accompanied by a choral backdrop, and the most beautiful soaring symphonic noise, extremely reminiscent of Stardust We Are period Kings (Knowing, by the way, could easily have fitted on that exceptional album), then you know that what you have here is classic progressive rock played by its leading proponents, classic and modern.
Listen to the orchestration on Everyone Heals, and then recoil at the power of Stolt's riff before Anderson introduces the vocal with a fragile power one thought had been lost to us forever.
Some of Stolt's guitar work really is to be treasured (the delicate sounds produced on Knowledge with the sounds of the ocean waves lapping over it are simply wonderful), and Reingold has his fret fingers working as if it is the last thing he will ever do and wants to go out on a high.
Both have promoted this album with vigour, and it quite clearly is a work of some importance to them. I heard Anderson on BBC Radio on more than one occasion, and he is clearly revelling in the autumn of his career. Given that it is only a few years since he almost died, I thank God that he has survived to carry on his musical legacy to the world. I also wonder what would have been had Squire and Howe showed just a little bit more patience, and allowed him the recovery time he needed, because one thing is for sure. This is a far better, rounded, and genuine "Yes" album than the debacle that was Heaven and Earth, or Fly From Here, as much as I enjoyed the suite on the latter.
This is an excellent album, which all lovers of genuine symphonic prog will want to own.
KARMAKANIC - DOT
Dot is the latest album from the Swedish combo led by the imperious Jonas Reingold.
It features all which makes this band so special – a complex mixture of symphonic pomp, jazz, psych in an album based around the concept of the evolution of the universe.
LEE ABRAHAM - THE SEASON’S TURN
Impressive album bookended by two mighty epics. Enjoy the trailer/taster embedded below.
FREQUENCY DRIFT - LAST
Yet another new vocalist, but much the same high quality and atmospheric from the German progressive band with folk sensibilities.
EDENSONG - YEARS IN THE GARDEN OF YEARS
If you ever wondered what would happen if (folk period) Jethro Tull, Dream Theater, and King Crimson got together and created a new album and what it would sound like, then look no further.
Wonderfully atmospheric, contemporary, and original.