Four years after what many felt was a return to form in Sounds That Can’t Be Made, Marillion released Fuck Everyone And Run (F.E.A.R.) to resounding applause in 2016.

Built around three multi-suite tracks, F.E.A.R. is Marillion’s strongest album since 2004’s Marbles.

Kicking things off with ‘El Dorado’, a little diddy with singer Steve Hogarth waxing about the weather, above Steve Rothery’s tuneful acoustic guitar.  Hogarth’s soft falsetto intro’s the second part of the song ‘The Gold’ but once the song kicks in with its powerful chorus it’s clear that this album will be something special.

The band has been trying to find their feet ever since 2004’s Marbles, the last album produced by long time collaborator Dave Meegan.  In-house engineer Mike Hunter, who has worked with the band since the early 90s, took over producing duties starting with Somewhere Else, a decent yet somewhat uneven release. The follow-up, the two disk Happiness Is the Road was all over the place.  Sounds that Can’t Be Made followed in 2012 and was overall a very good album.

F.E.A.R. finds Marillion in a angry mood.  Topics including the environment and big banking are tackled without abandon.  The second track ‘Living In F E A R’ was released as a single and was #1 in the UK for physical sales the week it came out.   A little more upbeat than ‘El Dorado’ it has a catchy chorus. That leads to Hogarth’s dedication to touring and family ‘The Leavers’.  The second of the suite songs it showcases the thoughts of a touring band member , the leaver, and his/her family that they leave for weeks/months at a time , the remainers.

‘White Paper’ is as close to a ballad as this album gets and is a good song but it get’s overshadowed by the song suites.

Up next is ‘The New Kings’, the most angry song on this album (certainly not as angry as Gaza on the previous album).  This song gives us the album’s title and in interviews Hogarth has stated that it wasn’t done (use the term ‘fuck’), to shock but is more of a mindset of the reckless leaders that brought the world to almost financial ruin.  The song perfectly sets the tone for the lack of humanity and care banks and big business have for the individuals that get lost in their wake. As the song states “we are the new kings, I’ll tell you a tale, we’re too big to fail’.

The music on this album is the strongest and most consistent group the band has created in a long time.  Many say that Marillion are best when dark, and it certainly appears that way. I have read that fans felt the songs all shared the same middle-ground cadence and beat, which may be true, but reaching back to some of their former glories in the melodies really help the album shine.  Hogarth’s singing is top notch, for a guy nearing 60 and in the band two years shy of three decades it’s amazing how his voice has held up.  Also gone for the most part was the long falsetto parts that were so much a part of Somewhere Else and Happiness…. which I honestly did not enjoy.

Almost forty years into a career Marillion have crafted one of the best albums of their careers.  It’s a year and a half since the release and no surprise that the band is still touring it.  They’ve spoken about the next one but that will still be a while yet. Enjoy the FEAR while it lasts.