Quality Control?

Album Review: Happiness Is The Road - Marillion

Marillion’s business model has set the blueprint for niche music in the modern entertainment business. Their go-it-alone approach has freed them from record company influence and helped them survive innumerable shifts in fashion and taste. This latest innovation though was seen by many as a step too far. Giving an album away for free? Time will tell if tagging the downloads with links to their merchandise store bears fruit and I’m sure that the rest of the industry will be watching closely to see if the ‘if you can’t beat them join them’ approach to file sharing has any effect.

Whilst Marillion’s commercial inventiveness has ensured the ongoing existence of the band I am a little concerned at the effect that this independence can have on their music. Happiness Is The Road sprawls over two volumes and is often overlong and sometimes just a tad boring. There is real quality on show here but perhaps a little record company quality control would have honed this into a shorter and more impressive single disc. Whilst Volume 1 - Essence is beautifully played it is mostly unfocused twiddling and wittering and tends to make to me nod off after a while. By comparison Volume 2 – The Hard Shoulder is shorter and sharper and is by far the more entertaining of the two. Proof perhaps that less can be more and that commercial interests can sometimes have a positive artistic influence.

Footnote: In case you’re wondering, I bought my copy of the album off Racket Records. I still think that file-sharing is stealing!

Rating: Good