LESS IS MORE

I was quite confused when I read about this release for the first time. It's not that an acoustic music album sounded like anything new coming from a band that literally flooded their fan base with alternate versions of their tracks over the years. Still most of those releases resulted in Christmas albums and compilations that were mainly targeted at the already existing audience. Is this brand new acoustic take really worth an official studio release title? The short answer is a definite: No! But just like anything else that has been released under the Marillion moniker there are a few grey areas that are still worth mentioning.

Less Is More hasn't received all that many reviews since its original October release date and I completely understand this change of heart from the fans since this can hardly be considered a studio release to them. I've only streamed this album off Spotify for the last two weeks and I'm pretty sure that I won't be purchasing this release any time soon myself. First of all, I'm not that big of a fan to spend my money on another Marillion compilation and I doubt that Less Is More could even replace any of the much more interesting live albums that the band has released over the years.

My main interest with this album came from the fact that it featured three Anoraknophobia tracks in a trimmed down format. Just like I mentioned in my review of that album, I really though that the short format would do miracles for these performances. Unfortunately the acoustic factor did play in a bit too much into this matter and balanced out the improvements that were done by the shorter format. The only real improvement that this album showed me came in the completely reinvented version of the lesser Brave track titled Hard As Love. This new take of the track made me wonder how a completely acoustic version Brave would have sounded to my ears.

Considering that Less Is More is a collectors/fans only release that even the fans don't seem to be all that enthusiastic about, this album slips into the realms of completionists only material. Hopefully the band will take this opportunity to work more on the upcoming future releases since the one "studio album each year"-formula isn't working in their favor right now.

**** star songs: Hard As Love (5:00) The Memory Of Water (2:36)

*** star songs: Go (5:02) Interior Lulu (7:32) Out Of This World (5:08) Wrapped Up In Time (3:40) Quartz (5:48) It My Heart Were A Ball (5:12) It's Not Your Fault (3:33) This Is The 21st Century (5:30)

** star songs: The Space (4:50) Cannibal Surf Babe (3:39)