Marillion Happiness Is The Road

Once upon a time, Marillion was unmistakably a prog band. But by the dawn of the 21st century, it was becoming increasingly clearer that the group was shedding their early prog direction in favor of melodic pop (akin to Radiohead's more focused and mainstream moments, or even comparable to Coldplay, if Chris Martin and co. were a tad more askew). This is especially evidenced by the first half of their 2008 double album, Happiness Is the Road (issued as two separate releases, "Volume 1: Essence" and "Volume 2: The Hard Shoulder"). By this point, the group's devoted cult following awaits each release with baited breath, and both neither volume should disappoint their post-Fish era fans - especially on the simply soaring title track from Vol. 1…

Less Is More marks a kind of evolutionary milestone for Marillion. They may have emerged in the early ‘80s as the front-runners of the British neo-progressive movement (alongside the likes of Pendragon, IQ, et al.), but these days it's hard to imagine that the prefix "neo" was ever attached to this longstanding band. Four out of five current members have been on board since the second Marillion album, 1984's Fugazi, and singer Steve Hogarth became a 20-year man the year of Less Is More's release. They've come so far from their over the top, Genesis/Van der Graaf Generator-indebted beginnings that it's difficult to believe they're even the same group. Of course, in many ways, they aren't; that's the whole point of Less Is More, which finds Marillion revisiting songs from all across the last 20 years of their discography in new acoustic-based arrangements…

A Special Blu-ray version of the 'Holidays in Zelande' live set. Filmed at the Marillion Weekend, Holland 2011 in glorious High Definition. This is the ultimate Marillion live experience with HD picture & uncompressed high res audio across 3 Blu-ray discs…

What Marillion have produced in this superbly presented and produced set is to finally capture on film precisely why the band remain such a consummate, admired and persuasive live act.

~ Classic Rock Prog Magazine