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| Marillion announce their 15th studio album Happiness Is The Road, released exclusively on www.marillion.com on 20th October, 2008. |
| Marillion are widely acknowledged as the first band to truly embrace the internet and tap into its potential to interact with their fans and have sold more than 15 million albums world-wide to date. |
| Happiness Is The Road is a 110-minute 2CD double album; the first album, entitled 'Essence', is an adventurous musical trip exploring life’s biggest question: "What’s it all about?" Alongside their signature rock orchestration, Happiness Is The Road also references elements of pop, dub and soul and draws influence from artist’s as diverse as The Beach Boys and Marvin Gaye to Interpol, The Doors, Traffic, Pink Floyd and David Bowie. The album also sees Marillion experimenting with a host of new instruments including, Dulcimers, Glockenspiels a Harmonium, French Horns and even Sleigh bells a Harp and Zither. |
| Happiness is the Road will offer its first single release on October 1 via iTunes, 'Whatever is Wrong with You', which celebrates a lover's eccentricities. Additionally, Marillion have once again invited fans to be a part of the process with a contest (the winner will receive £5000) to make their own video for the first single and upload their interpretation to YouTube. The winning video will be determined on December 1 by the video most viewed on YouTube. For a listen to the single and more information on the contest please visit www.whateveriswrongwithyou.com |
| Inspiration for title track Happiness Is The Road came from H’s visit to the doctor during mid-tour stress-exhaustion. The Dutch doctor prescribed not drugs, but a book called 'The Power Of Now' by Eckhart Tolle; the book expounds on man’s addictive tendency to obsess with past and future whilst denying the present moment – the only real thing in life – and the only path to happiness. This proved to be the creative "essence" for the lyrics of this incredible new album. |
| Happiness Is The Road also marks the start of Marillion's 30th Anniversary year and sees the band embarking on a string of live dates across the UK this autumn and into 2009. |
| For full tour dates please visit www.marillion.com/tour |
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Marillion
"Happiness is the Road, Volume 1: Essence"
(INTACTCD12 /
5060108071222) |
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1. Dreamy Street
2. This Train is my Life
3. Essence
4. Wrapped Up in Time
5. Liquidity
6. Nothing Fills the Hole
7. Woke Up
8. Trap the Spark
9. A State of Mind
10. Happiness is the Road |
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Marillion
"Happiness is the Road, Volume 2: The Hard Shoulder"
(INTACTCD13 /
5060108071321) |
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1. Thunder Fly
2. The Man from the Planet Marzipan
3. Asylum Satellite #1
4. Older than Me
5. Throw Me Out
6. Half the World
7. Whatever is Wrong with You
8. Especially True
9. Real Tears for Sale |
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| Phil Wilding, Classic Rock, October 2008 (9 out of 10 Stars) |
| Almost 30 years into their career, Marillion's fifteenth studio album could be their most inventive and enduring yet. The third in a particularly creative period for the band: following 2004's Marbles - arguably their strongest album, fight amongst yourselves - and last year's Somewhere Else. Happiness is a sprawling, ambitious double CD (one disc's called Essence, the other, The Hard Shoulder) that could only have been made by a band who own their own studios. Taking its cue from what sounds, ostensibly, like a self-help book - The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (this is Marillion after all) - the book, in a nutshell, expounds the idea that happiness can only be found in the now, not worrying obsessively about the future or the past. As jumping off points go, it's as abstract or ambiguous as you might imagine, and it could be argued that the concept is just that, not a binding theme that holds the album together, but the results are simply outstanding. |
| At almost two hours long, Happiness demands a lot of the listener, but you'll be richly rewarded if you give it the time. Like all artists, Marillion have promised to push boundaries and envelopes with their latest release. It's familiar hyperbole and even though the band have experimented with zithers, harps and even sleigh bells, Marillion fans (who fear change as much as the rest of us) won't be dumbfounded by a sudden, erratic change in the bands musical direction. They still sound like Marillion, but, dare we say it, a better, bolder Marillion. |
| They are arch and surprisingly poppy in a song like Half the World and then rueful and bold with Throw Me Out. The latter's especially strong and wouldn't have sounded out of place on Kate Bush's The Red Shoes, though Steve Hogarth's baritone would have probably given it away. Hogarth is as brilliantly open-hearted as always: Especially True and Nothing Fills The Hole (with its woozy, soul vibe) sound like they could have been ripped from the pages of his journal. |
| All in all then, it's beautifully rendered, touching and telling. Happy days. |
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| Rick Florino, Artistdirect.com, December 2008 |
Have you ever fallen into a dream? That's what listening to Marillion is like. The band's sonic embrace materializes through lush melodies, orchestral passages and seductively sombre vocals. However, their 15th studio album, Happiness is the Road, isn't just one dreamscape; it's two, and they're both worth delving into. Separated into two halves, Essence and The Hard Shoulder, the album's a weirdly inviting ride. Marillion challenge listeners, through creating layered soundscapes that require and reward attention to detail. It's a challenge well worth taking for any discerning fan. |
Prog rock has always been a strange genre, but Marillion take the very notion of "progressive" and bend it to their collective whim. Over the course of these songs, aural textures segue from experimental to ethereal, yet the band never loses sight of melody. "This Train Is My Life" and "Nothing Fills The Whole" both feel elegantly morose, while "Happiness Is the Road" hypnotizes through a massive web of guitar and key orchestration. |
"Liquidity" flows with a fire that only a band this seasoned could muster.
That's only just the first half of Happiness Is the Road. The second matches the first, but dives below the "prog" surface and into an ethereal darkness that culminates on "Real Tears for Sale," a veritable epic. |
Marillion have remain a cult sensation, but they deserve the mainstream's attention now more than ever. In a musical climate dominated by the "style over substance" mantra, it's refreshing to see a band that's not afraid to still take chances. The "initiated" already know about Marillion's brilliance. However, if you're new to the band, feel free to close your eyes and drift away on this Road. |
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| Greg Prato, All Music Guide, December 2008 |
Once upon a time, Marillion was unmistakably a prog pop band. But by the dawn of the 21st century, it was becoming increasingly clearer that the group was shedding their early prog direction in favour 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. But on the second disc, the group gets to follow a much proggier path -- which you could have figured by taking a gander at the song title, "The Man from Planet Marzipan." Marillion continue to explore the artier side of rock without getting too crazy, as heard throughout both volumes of Happiness Is the Road. |
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