AN HOUR BEFORE IT'S DARK

This is more a reaction to a first pair of listenings to the album than an elaborate analysis of it. One shouldn't do that when the music hasn't opened the door to you nor infused your system yet, but that's not the case now, since I feel myself comfortably seated in the heart of this music, and wishing to share my impressions.

The mini-epic Be Hard On Yourself opens the proceedings very appropriately on a high note, with a powerful vocal delivery by Hoggarth and great symphonic frame by the band. The second track Reprogram The Gene brings a more conventionally square rhythm and a pretty disjointed quiet/loud alternation. After that, the fire calms down to a more song-oriented format, until The Crow And The Nightingale come, really nice. In the last two epics, Sierra Leone and Care, we get a rebooth of the customary level of intensity and complexity, with inspired electric guitar solos by Steve Rothery, as it is supposed to happen in an album released under the Marillion brand.

Not flawless, but loaded with lots of excellent music and things to say, this new album still carries the torch, even not breaking any new ground, but only showing pride, and taste, and ideas, and true respect for their own legacy and for their fans.