| Marillion's fifth studio album and their first with new lead singer Steve Hogarth.
Imagine, if you will, it's 1988. Marillion are actually popular, and at the height of their popularity, their lead singer tells the band where they can stick it. The rest of the band wants to make music, the record company surely is interested in that as well, so the band audition new singers. The auditioned a lot until they found Hogarth, who was in the famous bands The Europeans and How We Live, and brought a completely different vibe than Fish (H is about a foot shorter, long, jet-black hair, very different-looking).
So Seasons End is written and recorded, with the band using ideas from the recording sessions with Fish that didn't finish, with some of Hogarth's new lyrics and lyrics from John Helmer a hired hand the record company brought in to fill some of the lyrical void that Fish left when he departed. The resulting album is one that is definitely on the cusp of where the band had been and where they were going. Hogarth has a different vocal style, but it's good for many fans.
The first single was "Hooks In You" which was a pop-metal aberration for the band, and probably worried many fans who didn't know what to expect from that. The album, though is unmistakably Marillion.
I saw the "new" Marillion on their first US appearance, and the crowd was convinced when they saw Hogarth that the band was still good.
Tracks:
< Clutching At Straws | Holidays In Eden > | 
