HOLIDAYS IN EDEN

Holidays in Eden was Marillion's second album released with new frontman Steve Hogarth. With this album Marillion moved almost completely into mainstream, radio-friendly rock/pop music, nearly completely abandoning their progressive roots. Yes, there are elements here and there that show progressive tendencies, but they are much fewer than on any previous effort by the band. However, with all the complaining about the direction they chose, it was quite clear from Misplaced Childhood onward the band had been evolving to this. Either they liked this new style of music or they were attempting to line their pockets with more money. If it was the latter, apparently this attempt failed as it didn't fare well with other contemporary pop rocks acts at the time. The only positive thing to come from this was that Marillion learned a lesson and future releases would show stronger prog rock tendencies as they cater to their original prog rock fan base.

Although this is probably one of the worst Marillion releases in terms of "progressiveness," it does have some enjoyable AOR material that's written quite intelligently and performed quite well. All in all, not a bad album, but in terms of prog rock I can only give it two stars. Recommended for mainstream rock enthusiasts with slight progressive tendencies and die-hard Marillion fans. The rest of you should probably avoid.