Whether it's the last hour you were allowed to play outside as a child before you had to go home, a reference to the fight against time in regard to the climate crisis or the last minutes of a person's life - An Hour Before It's Dark certainly doesn't lack interpretations.
Be it Seasons End on the 1989 album of the same name or the much discussed track Gaza on the 2012 album Sounds That Can't Be Made - Marillion have never minced their words and don't do so on this album either.
An Hour Before It's Dark is not only the title of the album, but also the overarching theme that creates a connection between all the songs on the album. Recorded in Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios, Marillion remain musically true to themselves and continue swimming against the path of adjusting to norms and limitations.
LP 1:
1. Be Hard on Yourself (I) The Tear in the Big Picture
2. Be Hard on Yourself (II) Lust for Luxury
3. Be Hard on Yourself (III) You Can Learn
4. Reprogram the Gene (I) Invincible
5. Reprogram the Gene (II) Trouble-Free Life
6. Reprogram the Gene (III) A Cure for Us?
7. Only a Kiss
8. Murder Machines
9. The Crow and the Nightingale
LP 2:
1. Sierra Leone (I) Chance in a Million
2. Sierra Leone (II) The White Sand
3. Sierra Leone (III) The Diamond
4. Sierra Leone (IV) The Blue Warm Air
5. Sierra Leone (V) More Than Treasure
6. Care (I) Maintenance Drugs
7. Care (II) An Hour Before Its Dark
8. Care (III) Every Cell
9. Care (IV) Angels on Earth