Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Marillion
Label: EMI Records
Release: 1989
Length: 10:09
Rating: 4/5
When they released “Hooks In You”, the first single from the cult album “Seasons End” (1989), Marillion were standing at the most important turning point of their career. That was when audiences got their first look at the versatile singer Steve Hogarth, later also known as Mr. H. A former member of the obscure new wave pop band The Europeans, he showed right away that he was a singer cut from a completely different cloth than his charismatic and seemingly irreplaceable predecessor Fish.
Contrary to what everyone expected back then, Mr. H was no copy of the burly Scottish joker. He had a totally different vocal color, a different vocal and stage approach, and a charisma all his own. That made him a truly radical turn for Marillion: his unique voice, with its unusually wide genre range, let them finally cut every sonic comparison to the 70s prog rockers, Genesis first and foremost. Mr. H couldn’t have looked more different from the bearded Scottish bear of a man either — in his younger days he was a proper magnet for female concertgoers.
The hard-rocking crowd-pleaser “Hooks In You” was a stylistically odd but still successful choice for the first single with the new singer, since it was a radical break from (neo) prog rock, which still marked the bulk of the “Seasons End” material, as it had originally been written for Fish. This mix of hard rock and pop is definitely closer to hair/glam metal than to progressive rock. With its punchy vibe, wound-up rhythm and cheeky chorus, it most reminds you of the notorious Van Halen classic “Jump”, though the resemblance is only skin-deep.
The 12-inch vinyl and the CD version of the single contained two different mixes of “Hooks In You”, while “After Me” was picked as the B-side. It’s a simple but very pretty acoustic ballad that doesn’t reach the expressiveness and depth of the classic “Easter”, but still counts among those songwriting achievements that seem born for Hogarth’s voice. Rothery’s solo turn is no slouch either — on acoustic guitar he shows he’s every bit as much a master as he is on electric, coaxing out a string of energetic and atmospherically rich passages.
When it dropped, “Hooks In You” was a huge shift and a straight-up shock for fans of Fish-era Marillion. Today it’s recognized as an energetic catalyst, one that successfully showed off their by-now proverbial versatility and freedom from genre constraints. You could say that with this song, and a few other tracks on “Seasons End”, Marillion were done with neo prog rock and became art rockers with a much wider musical horizon.
Lineup
Steve Hogarth – vocals
Steve Rothery – guitar
Mark Kelly – keyboards
Pete Trewavas – bass guitar
Ian Mosley – drums
Production
Marillion and Nick Davis
Tracklist
1. Hooks In You (Meaty Mix)
2. Hooks In You (7″ Mix)
3. After Me
