Label: earMUSIC Records
Release date: 22-09.2016
Production: Marillion & Michael Hunter
Genre: Neo Progressive Rock / Art Rock
Album length: 68:10
English prog rock champions Marillion have made their eighteenth studio album, “Fuck Everyone and Run (FEAR)”. It’s their first proper concept record in a long time, and it has quite a bit in common with their earlier concept masterpiece “Brave” (1994), mainly in the many barbed messages aimed at society. Marillion have always had a socially critical edge to their songs, but on “Fuck Everyone and Run (FEAR)” the lashing out at the unjust ‘brave new world’ that runs through the whole album has gone to new heights. Steve ‘Mr. H’ Hogarth commented on the rather unusual album title by saying it wasn’t picked out of anger or to shock, as most people might assume. It’s the central message of the lyrics to “The New Kings”, which reflects sadness and resignation over where England, and most of the rest of the world with it, is currently heading. There’s a lot of rage here too, over the key role of the US in the modern spread of neoliberal chaos, wars, and the ever worse social, ecological, moral, and spiritual breakdown of human society.
Marillion have never expressed this much rage at the current social climate as they do in the lyrics of “Fuck Everyone and Run (FEAR)”, and that’s just as it should be. Conditions are getting more and more unbearable, and the fear of the approaching storm, which may bring positive change or the total destruction of a sick humanity, keeps growing. Back on “Brave” they were already firing every cannon at an increasingly individualistic, materialistic, and dehumanized society. This time they really don’t hold back on the broadsides against oligarchy, plutocracy, yuppies, and extremists of every stripe who live off human fear. The saddest part of all is that in the twenty-two years since “Brave” came out, nothing has changed for the better. If anything, things have gotten even worse.
The album is split into three huge suites and three shorter, likewise interconnected pieces, which tie the concept together into a thoroughly convincing whole, with a complex sonic character and shattering messages. Only a handful of modern prog rock bands can boast lyrics this good. The suites “El Dorado”, “The Leavers”, and “The New Kings” are divided into several sections and rank among the longest pieces in their colorful career, although the longest Marillion epic is still “Grendel” from the start of the Fish era. Like most albums from the Hogarth years, it takes at least a few listens before the deep, socially critical messages and the complex sonic details and arrangements ‘settle’ in your ears and start to form an exciting experience. On a casual listen it seems like a distinctly meditative record, with lots of room for keyboardist Mark Kelly in particular, while guitar maestro Steve Rothery doesn’t skimp on his trademark melancholic solos either. But that’s not quite the whole story, because “FEAR” often ‘erupts’ in angry outbursts. The atmosphere of most pieces is melancholic and dark, with occasional bright shades.
“FEAR” opens with the highly ambitious and complex suite “El Dorado”, split into five sections. Its lyrics call out the xenophobia and hatred faced mostly by today’s refugees from Africa and the Middle East as they flee war zones and socially unstable regions for the so-called ‘promised lands’ of the EU. Instead of asking itself about the real causes of these people’s plight (among other things, Europe’s blind backing of America’s ‘crusader’ wars in the Middle East, closely tied to the oil and arms lobbies), European society would rather follow, naively and in a panic, the corrupt politicians who skillfully stoke and spread a general fear of terrorism. All the while they keep deftly steering the public’s attention away from plenty of problems at home, like the worst social stratification in history, and at the same time they encourage the spread of fascism across the old continent, which is slowly taking power again in more and more European countries.
That’s what “El Dorado” is about, and its message is a lot like another socially critical masterpiece, “Gaza”, from the previous album. After the acoustic opening section, “Long-Shadowed Sun”, comes the transition into “The Gold”, where calm and angry moments alternate nicely. The core of the suite is the section “Living in FEAR”, where Marillion slowly and quite unexpectedly build up a melodic chorus and offer a more general look at the fear that’s becoming ever more deeply rooted in modern human society. The dramatic ambient passage hits its climax with a tasteful guitar solo, while Hogarth’s chorus is filled out in all the right places with backing vocal harmonies. As usual, those come mainly from bassist Pete Trewavas, with occasional help from Rothery, Kelly, and drummer Ian Mosley.
The five-section suite “The Leavers” is the most extensive and musically most ambitious piece on the album, and Marillion impress with rich harmonies, unexpected time changes, and an outstanding vocal performance from Mr. H. For a change, his lyrics here aren’t socially critical. They’re about the band itself, Marillion, and their touring trips around the world, a theme they’ve already tackled on earlier albums, for example in the song “Montreal”. The atmosphere is a little brighter this time. Rothery weaves melancholic guitar passages in his refined way, and Kelly lays down extremely lively keyboard textures that really shine in the middle of the longer instrumental sections. The vocal harmonies flowing over the melancholic guitar passages in the closing part create a phenomenal, almost epic atmosphere.
The deeply melancholic “White Paper” is the second of two pieces on “FEAR” with no political message. It’s a cynical look at ‘real’ love in the modern corporate world, and at how this ideal is dying ever faster amid unrestrained digitalization, as relationships become shallow and artificial. Kelly once again plays around with some clever sound samples, while Hogarth shines again with an incredibly heartfelt vocal performance.
The third suite on the album, the dystopia-spiced “The New Kings”, split into four sections, attacks the plutocracy and oligarchy of modern (let’s hope it’s the last) stage of neoliberal capitalism. There are two worlds: one for the rich and privileged, who own 99% of the world’s wealth, and another for everyone who obediently serves them and is ready to swallow all their ‘crap’, along with all the lies they spread through their media, which keeps the existing social order going.
The orchestrally backed intro combines H’s dramatic vocal performance, kicked into ‘high gear’, with subtle guitar passages that chill your blood. There are quite a few ambient moments like this on this wonderful suite, with plenty of ‘food for thought’ in the lyrics. One of the ambient climaxes is definitely the section “Russia’s Locked Doors”, with ethereal vocal harmonies. Its lyrics warn how modern plutocracy, led by the US, stages a new cold war whenever it needs to, if that brings some political and economic benefit. Even though Marillion sing that these social parasites are simply ‘too big to fail’, hope still dies last. At the end comes the most dramatic section on the whole album, “Why Is Nothing Ever True?”. The composition “Tomorrow’s New Country”, less than two minutes long and sitting right at the very end of the album, was originally meant as the closing section of the “The Leavers” suite. But because of its bright, ambient nature they decided to move it to the last spot, so that the concept, after the thoroughly dark and dystopian “The New Kings”, ends on a positive note after all, with a ray of hope shining into the gloom of present conditions and dark visions of the future.
The dystopian nature of “Fuck Everyone and Run (FEAR)” makes a deep impression from the first listens to the new Marillion album, but it only completely takes over the listener once they take the time for more in-depth listening, just as we’ve gotten used to from ‘Britain’s best-kept musical secret’ over the years. With “FEAR”, Marillion have made an album that’s the equal of its outstanding predecessor “Sounds That Can’t Be Made” (2012), which was no easy feat, since that masterpiece was one of the best albums of their career. At the same time, “FEAR”, already one of the main contenders for the best prog rock album of 2016, is also one of their most demanding achievements for the listener, especially for those who don’t dig into the lyrics or don’t have the nerves for longer, meditative, and at the same time complex ambient sections. There are very few rock bands around today, especially with such an established name, who dare to attack modern society this openly and this intelligently, as the quintet from Aylesbury does. Social criticism has always been something Marillion are known for, and it still ties them to neo-prog peers like Arena, IQ, Pallas, Pendragon, and Twelfth Night, although musically they haven’t had much in common with those bands for a long time.
author: Peter Podbrežnik
rating: 9.0 / 10
Track list:
1. El Dorado (I) Long-Shadowed Sun
2. El Dorado (II) The Gold
3. El Dorado (III) Demolished Lives
4. El Dorado (IV) F E A R
5. El Dorado (V) The Grandchildren of Apes
6. Living in F E A R
7. The Leavers (I) Wake Up In Music
8. The Leavers (II) The Remainers
9. The Leavers (III) Vapour Trails in the Sky
10. The Leavers (IV) The Jumble of Days
11. The Leavers (V) One Tonight
12. White Paper
13. The New Kings (I) F*** Everyone and Run
14. The New Kings (II) Russia’s Locked Doors
15. The New Kings (III) A Scary Sky
16. The New Kings (IV) Why is Nothing Ever True?
17. The Leavers (VI) Tomorrow’s New Country
Lineup:
Steve Hogarth – vocals, keyboards
Steve Rothery – guitar, backing vocals
Pete Trewavas – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals
Mark Kelly – keyboards, backing vocals
Ian Mosley – drums, percussion, backing vocals
