There are bands who can make you think, and bands who can make you feel, but very few can connect as deeply on both an intellectual *and* emotional level as Marillion. Music to stir the soul.
"Not even for heaven ..." and the solo, this is Marillion at their best. Good Lord, just wrings the emotion out of you like no other band I've ever heard. And I can name a dozen songs in their catalog with moments just as powerful. I hadn't listened to this song in the last few months - my father passed in early November - oh man. I had a few of these angels caring for him - and us - during his final weeks. Thanks, Doug, I needed this.
Care is one of the most beautiful songs written in the past 30 years. There are only a very small number of songs that make me weepy whenever I hear them, and this is one.
The last 2 sections 'every cell' and 'Angels on earth' are gloriously beautiful. To have a band producing music as wonderful as this, at this stage of their career is something else. Thank you Doug for introducing them to your audience. When i heard care live I broke down in tears. What a band. ❤
Musically, lyrically, no band helps me through life better than Marillion. They understand me as a human being. When you're at one of their shows you feel it everywhere around you. Thank you Doug!
The final section is the best piece of music Ive ever heard on every level. I always cry when I hear it and even cried seeing it live. One day I won’t cry but I doubt it will be for a long time. I lost my wife and kids due to the pandemic but still have Marillion. It’s such a great record.
I’ve experienced loss and illness also during the pandemic and I remember the quiet hospitals and the eyes of the people who were working there. The empty places, the text, the climax and especially the message of this song are something I’ve never experienced in another song, everything comes together. I wish you the best with your losses and hope the song helps you. For me the song gets better every time I listen to it and I’m thankful I’ve heard it a couple of times live now. Wish you the best.
My most sincere condolences, man. I lost my wife a little over 7 years ago to brain cancer...and Marillion was her band. Though she never got to hear this masterpiece...it could well have been written for her. All I can say is...Take care. ❤
A short anecdote about Care. During the first Covid wave - while the band were writing and recording the album - a RU-vidr and fan of Marillion lost his twin to Covid. His friend contacted Lucy - Marillions Manager - and asked if the band could send him a message, hoping to lift his spirits in his time of despair. Shortly after the RU-vidr received an email from Steve Hogarth 'H', offering condolences from himself and the rest of the band. He also attached a copy of the lyrics he was working on for Care, asking him to not share them with anyone until the band had released the album. Once it had been released he uploaded a video telling his story, thanking the band publicly.
Steve Rothery with out of this universe 5 guitar solos, H with amazing pipes, Mark Kelly with superb keyboard soundscapes, Pete with fantastic bass notes and Ian Mosley with amazing percussion! Sublime!
I feel overjoyed each and every time I see or meet a person who appreciates Marillion's music. That's how much I have become attached to their art in the near-40 years I have been following them, since I was 15. 2023 was a great year for me because I was finally able to watch them live two nights in a row, back in April. It was in Amsterdam, some 2700 kilometers far away from my home in Istanbul. Thank you very much for sharing your enthusiasm for Marillion, hope to hear more of them here in near future. 💕
I got the same feeling thinking about Jim Ladd who died on Sunday of a heart attack. He was responsible for a lot of progressive rock and free form being played on FM radio in the late 60s and battled tirelessly against the commercialization of FM radio. only recently got into Marilion. One of most underrated bands out there. Kudos to Doug for giving them exposure along with others like porcupine tree. I wish i could have introduced my classical loving father to Marrilion before he died, I think their orchestic integration would have appealed to him.
It's an amazing song! It is even better when you see them play it live, those sounds just wash over you. Speaking of sounds, I'm glad you highlighted the beautiful aural qualities of their music. They create some absolutely gorgeous soundscapes in the background. Mark Kelly really deserves more credit for creating a lot of those sounds.
Nice reaction 👍🏻 Great song from a great band . Check out their song This Strange Engine, it's awesome. A 🎷 solo, 🎹 solo and 2 🎸 solos 💪. And the vocals at the end are insane, that high (F#6, if I'm correct )😮.
Well, this was a lovely surprise - jumped straight from watching Jim Newstead reacting to Fish's best album with Marillion to seeing that you've posted the last song on Marillion's latest record, and my favourite song on one of my favourite albums. This song means a lot to me, like it means a lot to many of us - it's the band's manager's favourite Marillion song, too. Pure class, right there... right there... oh, your hair's looking great today too, Doug. Cheers!
Thank you for choosing Marillion and the track Care… I’m so pleased you discovered this amazing band, I’ve been a fan 1982 and they just get better and better with each passing year :)
To put out a piece of music once in your career, of this level would be amazing. To do it after decades of delivering is just awe inspiring. This album follows me everywhere. Can’t stop listening to it.
Thanx so very much Doug for playing this great, great track from the latest amazing album from my favourite band Marillion. This song and this album are the latest in a long line of songs and albums from Marillion that show case just how well they write, arrange, play, record some of the most beautiful, heartfelt, and interesting music of the last 40 years. Then you add in that each of the members of Marillion, "H", Steve, Pete, Mark and Ian as well as Lucy, their manager and their crew, are some of the nicest and friendliest people you would ever want to meet. It really does feel like a huge family. Welcome to the Marillion Family Doug.
Seeing the album cover for “An Hour Before It’s Dark” behind you in such amazing company really hit me. I can only hope that one day this work will be recognised as deserving of its place in that company! Probably not, but it’s easily that important to me… ❤
Only Steve Hogarth could write a song about someone dying and have it end being a song that is really about gratitude. And the music, of course, is sublime. Such a masterpiece and I can’t listen to it without being reduced to tears. Thank you, Doug, for such wonderful content!❤
Sorry I missed this. Angels on earth is one of those Marillion tracks that really gets me emotionally, my other half works in a care home and I did worry about her health during the pandemic. I went to see them perform this album live in Stoke-on-Trent with a friend and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up when this was played. Beautiful song, if they released this as a single when the album came out I bet it would have sold a lorry load!
I've seen Marillion perform this twice now, the second time at the Marillion weekend. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. There's really something to this band. I love prog in general but Marillion are just built different.
The best album I have ever heard out of the 50,000 or so I estimate I have listened to in my lifetime. Some of the greatest music made IMO. Thanks for reviewing and thank you to Marillion
Wow, this really hit hard. My other half is poorly at the moment and the uplift at the end gives me hope. Here in the uk the term Angels refers to nurses. Best wishes
amazing song but its not just about covid, it was initially about someone with cancer, thats where maintenance drugs came from, the only real reference to covid is the description of the nurse with a mask on her face , the medical profession really are angels and have been for a very long time now
Keep listening to Marillion - you won't be disappointed. H songs with background stories like The Great Escape, Out of this World, Ocean Cloud, This Strange Engine, or songs with Fish's earth-moving poetic lyrics like Sugar Mice or Cinderella Search
Nice one Doug! I saw them tour the album last year in Southampton UK last year and it was mind-blowing! If you have a chance to see them live don't pass it by. That ticket and the preorder for AHBID is the best money I've spent in a long, long time!
Been a fan of this band since the 80’s and I am so glad people are noticing them after so long. Love Fish back in the day, but really enjoy H even better.
Was at the marillion weekend at Leicester in 2022 where they played this, it was a religious experience. Someone organised a surprise for the band by handing out notes beforehand asking the crowd to hold up their phone torches during the "the angels of this world" section, it was a sight to behold as the whole venue was lit up
Check out the band's 2023 Christmas cover of Greg Lake's "I Believe in Father Christmas". I confess it just blew me away. You'll recognise the album cover on the video, too.
Great review and homage, Doug, to one of the most beautiful pieces of music that humans have ever created. It shivers my spine every time I listen to it. Regards from Catalonia.
This song has touched me like no other in my entire lifetime. I'm reduced to tears every time I listen to it. In March 2022 we were still in lockdown and my marriage was falling apart. I felt like I was dying. Then Marillion releases their latest album and this song which captured everything I was feeling. At the end I had a sense of hope that just maybe I'm going to make it through. Thank you Marillion for keeping me going and thank you Doug for sharing it with a wider audience.
Its great to see someone of your calibre enthuse about this band that i have loved for over 30 years , don't tell too many people they are a closely guarded secret smiles
Isn't it glorious Doug, how a band like Marillion can fill your heart so well...better than anyone I feel. You have so much beautiful music from H era Marillion to discover and be kissed by...I'm so envious you have this to come for the first time...don't wait to listent to then, even if just for yourself and not the DD.
Thanks Doug; I enjoyed you sharing your love of Marillion. Having been a fan since the early 90s and having seen them 20-30x live, I share your love of their music. I look forward to you eventually getting around to sharing their 1994 masterpiece (they've had a few) 'Brave' with your listeners.
Thank You for such a fabulous review of this track and for giving it the immense credit that it so richly deserves. “ Care “ and the album is not just wonderful music but a piece of glorious art.
I hadn't heard this till this reaction. WOW!!! I have enjoyed this band on and off since the 80's and they produce some of the powerful songs and music it has been a pleasure to listen to. This is one and it's very powerful on a personal basis, more to do with other medical situations beyond COVID. I'm involved with a charity to which this song is applicable as well due to the challenges patients endure. Some survive on maintenance drugs and the help of "angels" to be here today. POWERFUL song on so many levels! Thank you for introducing this song to me and thank you to Marillion for creating it
Thanks for ending one year and starting the next with an analysis of this great new album from who I believe must be the great prog band….. even cheers Doug and happy new year
I loved, still love this album, Care is SO moving but the whole of the album is brilliant. I saw them live in their home town of Aylesbury in Sept 22 and the reception that the album, but this track in particular got was phenomenal.
I’m writing My letter for the Three Wise Men (I Live in Spain). I’m asking for a full album reaction to Marillion’s Brave. I think I deserve it, because I have been a good boy this year 😊. Let’s see what magic can do. Happy Cristmast everyone!!!
Great review Doug , this song is simply the best thing I have ever heard , saw it live in Wolverhampton but it is supreme on the PZ dvd just released. This band can make you go through a thousand emotions in one song and at times leave you in tears , I don’t remember feeling this way about any other band or song ever before in my life and I am a big Genesis and Floyd fan! The part when Melanie appears on the screen behind the band is extra special , just amazing! Best band on the planet
I would be interested on your knowledge, around Marillion and their sections of El Dorado from the Long shadowed sun and the gold, apart from being Englisi, their choice of notes brings so much emotion, it gets me every time.
Saw Marillion back in 1987 at the Hollywood Palladium. Great concert. Back on the Incommunicado Tour when Fish was still the lead singer. What a great night. What a great album. Every song was written on multiple layers both sonically and in the lyrics.
Saw them on the same tour in Birmingham, England. Fish said they were only going to do one more song after an hour or so. We booed a little, then he said it was going to be Misplaced Childhood. How we cheered!
Marillion - the only band that can make me cry, laugh, cheer, sad, smile, and feel alive through music. They don't entertain just for my ears, they touch my emotions.
I've been a Marillion fan my whole life and for me this album is without question the best they have ever recorded. Add to that my own extremely frightening 9-month long experience of Covid, the way the pandemic changed us all and the weight that was placed on the shoulders of doctors and nurses especially. And that's why this song makes me cry. Every. Damn. Time.
Doug, you are so right! Ive been listening to them for 42 years, through all their musical guises. You can take something of brilliance from all the albums. Some tunes are dated due to technology of the times, but the musicality is always there and there is always something lyrically that stands out. Your reviews are great. You get it.
This was a truly beautiful reaction video!Thank you, from a Norwegian nurse and Marillion fan! ♥️ Have you ever listened to Gazpacho? (A Norwegian prog rock band) I think you would like their music. They're quite inspired by Marillion. 😊
Thank you so much, @hegeelise, your support means a great deal to me, and I am so pleased that you were moved by my video. I am not familiar with Gazpacho’s music, I’ll check them out. Many thanks!
@Doug.Helvering This song was the first I ever heard of Gazpacho, and it's still very close to my heart! It's from their first album, Bravo. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GXY9Bx_2P4o.htmlsi=ylcfN5F4ZIxwtloI
È un disco registrato male, con bassa risoluzione e dinamica, nonché poche idee! Già nel 2001 con Anoraknophobia fecero qualcosa del genere ma poi 3 anni dopo arrivò Marbles: un capolavoro!!! Mi auguro che si ripetano. Un saluto 👋 a tutti e tutte voi, Max di Bergamo, Italia.
You've been suggesting this song on every video for like three years straight. Has it ever occurred to you that he's listened to it and won't review it because he doesn't like it? It's an awesome composition. I agree. But, he's not going to do it. So, stop!🤦♂️
When H is singing “she wrapped her arms around me” (uplifting moment BTW) Rothery’s guitar is similar to some passage is the Misplaced Childhood. Perhaps the end of White Feather, “these are our hearts”? not sure…
Doug check out Magellan 100 year flood or the Leonardo The Absolute Man by the Gardner Brothers and special cast of musicians. James LaBrie plays Leonardo!
Alexandra Zerner turned me on to Marillion this past year. She told me they are one of her favorite bands. She does a great cover of the Kayleigh solo.
A very underrated band, and one I only discovered because the guys in Dream Theater are fans. You should check out the UK single called Easter. Beautiful song from these guys.
