I'm one of those that has remained a Marillion fan for all those years. I have found interesting every album they have put out since Fish left the band, and have enjoyed the band's evolution over the years. Recently their cds have had a bit less impact with me, but still, their latest Happiness Is The Road is an album I like to listen to from time to time, and I felt was an improvement over their previous one.

Less Is More is an album of stripped down songs of their post Fish period. It is not a collection of the most well known songs of the band, even though some live favorites (for example "Quartz") are included. The versions of their more instense pieces are very stripped down and much more tranquile than the originals. The other songs, already pretty mellow in their original versions, have certainly not gained any energy.

So... is less really more? Not in my opinion. In fact less is less and sometimes less than less. It's not that this is a bad album, but it does not add much to the originals, these versions being pretty faithfull... but less. Also, I must admit, Steve Hogarth's singing is starting to get on my nerves. He's the only thing that is "more" on this album, but in his case : "More is too much".