HAPPINESS IS THE ROAD

Happiness is up there with Clutching At Straws, Brave and Marbles as one of the great marillion albums. It sounds great in the studio version - spacey, open production - and also live - check out the downloads of the happiness on the road tour.

The concept part Essence builds slowly through the first few tracks then bursts into excitement and tunefulness on Nothing fills the Hole, Woke Up, Trap the Spark, State of mind and culminating in the title track - wonderful.

The Hard Shoulder disc is more immediate with a serious of strong and quirky songs, my favourites being Thunder Fly, Half the World and Real Tears for Sale, though this changes as I become more and more familiar with the album.

It needs 10-15 listens before it is really there in the mind, but it's a fabulous album and I highly recommend it.