Marillion - Happiness Is The Road review
| Band: | Marillion |
| Album: | Happiness Is The Road |
| Style: | Progressive rock |
| Release date: | October 20, 2008 |
| A review by: | Jeff |
Disc I [Volume 1: Essence]
01. Dreamy Street
02. This Train Is My Life
03. Essence
04. Wrapped Up In Time
05. Liquidity
06. Nothing Fills The Hole
07. Woke Up
08. Trap The Spark
09. A State Of Mind
10. Happiness Is the Road
11. -
12. Half Full Jam
Disc II [Volume 2: The Hard Shoulder]
01. Thunder Fly
02. The Man From The Planet Marzipan
03. Asylum Satellite #1
04. Older Than Me
05. Throw Me Out
06. Half The World
07. Whatever Is Wrong With You
08. Especially True
09. Real Tears For Sale
After the fantastic "Marble" and the controversial "Somewhere Else" Marillion is finally back again with a new release, "Happiness Is The Road". This time you'll be able to listen to a double album (personally I think that we can clearly talk about two different albums) entitled "Essence" and "The Hard Shoulder". "Happiness Is The Road" is a great and complex piece of work, something Progressive, something Rock, something Pop but always deep and touching. Definitely Marillion is a special band?
The first volume of "Happiness Is The Road", "Essence", is a conceptual album. This is a really special release where Hogarth talks about the nature of life through the twelve songs featured on the CD. This is really peaceful and probably disturbing for some people who are not really into calm Progressive music but this is really touching and extremely well done. Sure the first part of "Happiness Is The Road" is not full of radio hits and extremely catchy songs but the songs are so complex with a lot of keyboards lines, little sounds everywhere that it's just beautiful in the end. The general melancholic atmosphere of this CD is great, it's impossible to say that "Essence" is sad because the album is not so dark actually and some songs like "A State Of Mind" are powerful and full of "hope" despite the really peaceful general impression that it gives. "Essence" will maybe remind you the melancholy that we were able to feel on "Clutching At Straws" but Marillion has tried to innovate here and I think that they've managed to do it without any big problems.
You just have to listen to "Whatever s Wrong With You" or "Real Tears For Sale" to understand that the second part of "Happiness Is The Road" is really different. Obviously "The Hard Shoulder" is a lot more Rock and more accessible for a larger audience. Don't misunderstand me and believe that I'm saying that the second volume is easier or more commercial, because it's not the case but there is a big break between the two albums and here we're in front of a Marillion who wants to be a lot more direct. You know what? I think that "Essence" and "The Hard Shoulder" fits perfectly together, a bit like if "Essence" was done to create a real thought and "The Hard Shoulder" some nice attractive and hypnotic emotions. The second part of "Happiness Is The Road" is a total success too and I like to see this big difference on a same and unique product. The production is perfect and it's hard to see something wrong on this release which features by the way an excellent artwork.
In my opinion "Happiness Is The Road" will please all the fans of Marillion, the ones who like catchy songs (check "The Hard Shoulder" then) like the ones who love tortured melancholic Progressive music ("Essence" is for you!). The British combo is really innovative here and the performance of its musicians is simply great one more time. If you like Marillion don't miss this new album (that you can only buy via their website by the way) I'm sure that you'll like, at least, one of the two CDs but most probably this whole great piece of work.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 9 |
Written by Jeff | 27.10.2008
Comments
Comments: 14
Visited by: 115 users
| Fat & Sassy! Elite Posts: 3857  |
Holy shit! These guys still make music? Would one recommend this album to a Dream Theater/ Pain of Salvation kind of guy?
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| Talvi Posts: 825  |
But this isn't metal! And it's the gayest rock I've ever heard.
---- My account on other musical pages: http://www.last.fm/user/Pozito/ http://rateyourmusic.com/~Talvi
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Written by Talvi on 28.10.2008 at 11:46 So what if it isn't metal a band such as Marillion appeals to loads of metal fans. Even the albums after Fish had left (don't ask me why though  )As for your "gayest rock" comment. I see you have Yes amongst your favourite bands. Have you heard the song "Owner of a Lonely Heart?" I would even typify that as "gayest pop" 
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| TOUGHEST MEMBER Posts: 3618  |
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| Talvi Posts: 825 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 28.10.2008 at 14:42 But "Yes" is gay in the good sense of the word. And I have to upadate that stuff of mine, now I like gayer bands. Anyway, Marillion are bland even when talking about progressive rock. "Pure Reason Revolution" would fit here though.
---- My account on other musical pages: http://www.last.fm/user/Pozito/ http://rateyourmusic.com/~Talvi
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| Dane Train Beers & Kilts Elite Posts: 8902  |
Written by Fat & Sassy! on 28.10.2008 at 08:36 Yes I would recommend it to fans of Dream Theater and PoS (seeing how I am a die hard fan of both). Dream Theater actually played a Marillion song with some of the guys from Marillion ("Easter") and covered "Happiness is a Warm Gun" on the Uncovered album.
---- (space for rent)
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| BloodTears ANA-thema Elite Posts: 11835  |
Yep, it's on one of their DVDs, that song with marillion, on 5 years and a Livetime. It worked pretty well actually. And I'm one of those who likes Marillion and Dream Theater so yes, go for it 
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| marillionfan Account deleted |
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| Talvi Posts: 825 |
Written by [user id=17278] on 14.12.2008 at 20:31 Damn it, when I saw the name of the man who made the notification mark appear, I knew someone would feel violence towards me. Let's just say that it is a bad and boring band, but probably you'll say that I don't understand them and blablabla, so no need to argue about this. Peace.
---- My account on other musical pages: http://www.last.fm/user/Pozito/ http://rateyourmusic.com/~Talvi
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| marillionfan Account deleted |
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| Talvi Posts: 825 |
Written by [user id=17278] on 15.12.2008 at 12:45 For one second I thought you were talking about me.
---- My account on other musical pages: http://www.last.fm/user/Pozito/ http://rateyourmusic.com/~Talvi
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| JohnDoe Account deleted |
JohnDoe
Account deleted Written by Talvi on 28.10.2008 at 16:53 Pure Reason revolution? Not with their new album, they don't...
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| Talvi Posts: 825 |
Written by [user id=17278] on 24.02.2009 at 02:08 Check the date of that comment you quoted. The new album wasn't released yet ¬¬
---- My account on other musical pages: http://www.last.fm/user/Pozito/ http://rateyourmusic.com/~Talvi
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| JohnDoe Account deleted |
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