SEASONS END DELUXE EDITION

This is the last of the series of deluxe box set reissues of Marillion's first eight albums, despite being their fifth album (and their first with Steve Hogarth). Of course, it's understandable why Seasons End might have been left until last. It's not as celebrated as the Fish-era classics which came before it, or albums like Brave and Afraid of Sunlight where the Hogarth-era band's sound really came together. It's the dictionary definition of a transitional album, and whilst it has some grant songs on it - Easter in particular becoming a beloved live staple - it's clearly the child of the tricky circumstances that made it.

However, it does seem like there were additional reasons to leave this set until last. Each of these deluxe issues has been accompanied by a live set from the era on the accompanying CDs. However, it appears that Marillion and/or EMI have decided that the Seasons End era doesn't quite have enough high-quality live shows to choose from here, particularly since several shows have already seen a release on the second Official Bootleg boxed set.

Therefore, the second and third CDs here offer not a show from 1989-1990, but a show from 2022 - a special event combining a full run-through of the Seasons End album with two epic-length tracks from more recent Marillion releases (Gaza and The Leavers) for an encore, recorded at the 2022 Marillion Weekend.

That doesn't mean you're left without live material from the Seasons End era, mind - on the accompanying Blu-Ray there's a "Montreal Bootleg" (it's actually mostly pretty decent in terms of sound quality, bar for some technical glitches here and there) of a show from February 1990, and there's also the video of a concert from Leicester in 1990 originally broadcast on the Rock Steady TV show.

This latter previously saw the audio released on the second Official Bootleg box - which only makes me further suspect that usable shows dating from this tour were simply thin on the ground, and the band decided that rather than rereleasing a show many hardcore fans would already own the audio of on CD 2 and 3 of this set, or resorting to a show which has some significant audio glitches, they'd record a little something to show how they handle this material today, and perhaps give old-time fans collecting these sets a taste of the band's more current material.

The cover art on here has seen more of a tweak than any of the other Hogarth-era deluxe sets have received. One suspects that this may be an attempt at mending bridges; according to the accompanying booklet, the original art (which depicted little elements from old Marillion covers in the process of being consumed by fire, air, water, and earth) ended up ruffling some feathers, with Mark Wilkinson (the cover artist for the Fish-era album covers) feeling like it was a deliberate pop at him and some fans feeling like the artwork was a pot-shot at Fish and a renunciation of the Fish era.

As the band explain it in the booklet, it wasn't intended as that - it was meant to be a transition away from their old identity, but not a full-on rejection of it. Nonetheless, hackles were raised. The new artwork keeps the general spirit of the original whilst dialling back on the contentious aspects, and perhaps that's for the best.