Band : Marillion
Album Title : Happiness Is The Road
Label : EMI
Distributor : EMI
Release Date : March 2009
Review : 2CD

Marillion are a British rock group. Formed in Aylesbury Buckinghamshire, England in 1979, their recorded studio output comprises fifteen albums and is generally regarded as comprising two distinct eras, delineated by the departure of original vocalist & frontman Fish in late 1988 after their first four albums, and the subsequent arrival of replacement Steve Hogarth ("h") in early 1989. Marillion has thus far released eleven albums with Hogarth. (wikipedia)

So Marillion released their debut album Script For A Jester’s Tear way back in 1983, but the weakest point of Marillion nowadays is singer Steve Hogarth, his vocals are fragile and lack power to match the potent instruments. The double album (yeah, you read it right) lacks quality songs and there is no flow in the songs from start to finish. It is nowhere cohesive in its entirety and the monotone alternative prog gets wearing since there are no catchy choruses at all. The music is short of melody and indeed catchy choruses. Happiness Is The Road has a emo/Radiohead vibe to it, flavored with bombastic effects. The music of Marillion is too customized for radio airplay and it becomes weak alternative rock that is too stripped to the bone and forgotten the minute after. To put it very simple; the material is plain tame. It is apparent that this is a very personal disc and is the road that they wanted to construct themself to walk down. That does not make it is a great musical journey to embark on..

Hmmm. No reason to waste time or money on this one except for die hard Steve Hogarth-era freak of anoraks.cuz there are a hundreds of  discs on the market right now with more flash, substance and flavor than this release.

65/100

Peter Brems.