Marillion: Holidays in Eden Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.0

Marillion: Holidays in Eden Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 11, 2023

It's always kind of interesting to see how bands which sprang from one nation then attempt to matriculate globally to become phenomena of some sort, and in that regard, it may actually shock some American listeners relatively unfamiliar with Marillion to discover how remarkably successful the band has been in their native England. Regular readers of my music centered reviews may know I'm something of a "chart action" junkie, and longtime readers of my writing may recall my wife is from the same tiny Wisconsin town where the venerable Joel Whitburn, aggregator of Billboard chart data for decades before his passing, lived, and due to that connection I was able to visit his office, witness that very data compilation in process, and even got a tour of his "top secret vault" of rare 45s. Joel's efforts were published in book form back in the day, but they survive vestigially on the internet on any number of sites, as fellow aficionados may know. In that regard, aside and apart from Marillion's other sales and/or airplay activity, it's perhaps salient to note that Holidays in Eden made the Top 10 in the UK, producing three admittedly midlevel single hits (none got above the 30s on England's version of the "Hot 100"), but made next to no splash whatsoever on either the album or singles chart on this side of the pond. And in fact, aside from a veritable handful of Marillion's earlier albums, the band has never really had a smash in the United States, which may make this release something of an unknown even for listeners who consider themselves relatively well schooled in the history of rock bands. While Marillion is at least at times described as emerging from a post- punk atmosphere, I'd frankly probably compare the sound of this album to another genre the band has been described as belonging to, prog rock, with this effort being closer to, say, Icehouse or Duran Duran with just a hint or two of Yes. Their work on Holidays in Eden was the first total collaboration with "new" vocalist Steve Hogarth, who had debuted with the band with the immediately prior release Season's End, but who had relatively little input into the writing of that album, something that changed by the time the band went into the studio to record Holidays in Eden.

This is a recent release which hopefully may give supporters of Blu-ray audio a life preserver of sorts, since the format has never really become the force that devoted audiophiles (including me) might have hoped. While the DigiBook does offer CDs and a glut of text and photos in the book section, the Blu-ray disc commendably offers both audio and video content, which as collectors may be well aware is most certainly not always the case. The Blu-ray disc has the following content:

Audio Content

• Holidays in Eden (2022 Remix) features LPCM 2.0, LPCM 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 options. See the audio section below for my thoughts on the audio.
  
  
• B-Sides & Bonus Tracks are presented in LPCM 2.0:

  1. Sympathy

  2. How Can It Hurt

  3. A Collection

  4. Sympathy (Acoustic Version

  5. I Will Walk on Water (Alternative Mix)

  6. Splintering Heart (Live at The Moles Club)

  7. You Don't Need Anyone (Moles Club Demo)

  8. No One Can (Moles Club Demo)

  9. The Party (Moles Club Demo

  10. This Town (Moles Club Demo)

  11. Waiting to Happen (Moles Club Demo)

  12. Eric

  13. The Epic (Fairground) (Mushroom Farm Demo)

Video Content:

• Pain and Heaven: The Story of Holidays in Eden (HD; 1:25:11) is an appealing documentary which covers the creation of Holidays in Eden, along with some tangential items like the transition from Fish to Steve Hogarth, to touring, to the actual recording process at Stanbridge Farms, where (speaking of one of the referents I mentioned above) Duran Duran had just left. There is both contemporary talking head discussions as well as some fun and nostalgic archival video.


• Cover My Eyes (Promo Video) (HD; 3:51)


• No One Can (Promo Video) (HD; 4:42)


• Dry Land (Promo Video) (HD; 5:09)


• This Town (Demo - Stanbridge Studios) (HD; 5:14)


• Rockplast in Concert (German TV) (HD; 1:35:02)

Note: All of the above feature LPCM 2.0 audio.

Marillion: Holidays in Eden Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Marillion: Holidays in Eden is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Parlophone and Rhino with a kind of combo platter of AVC encoded 1080p or 1080i content in 1.78:1 and/or 1.33:1. That "and/or" comes courtesy of the fact that documentary is basically in 1.78:1 (see all of the screenshots I've uploaded to this review), but also features some archival material in 1.33:1, while all of the other video content is in 1.33:1. Similarly, the documentary is 1080p while all of the other material is 1080i. The older material definitely shows its age, and I assume is upscaled, due not just to a lack of detail but some anomalies that are typically associated with such efforts. The documentary is considerably better looking, even if some of the archival material may not be significantly improved. The main contemporary talking head segments are all sharp as a tack, with a natural palette and some appealing detail levels. I'm kind of splitting the difference quality wise between all of the video content on this disc with my general score, above.

Marillion: Holidays in Eden Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Marillion: Holidays in Eden features LPCM 5.1 48/24, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 48/24 and LPCM 2.0 48/24 audio options for the album itself, and you can't really go wrong with any of these, though those prone to "toggling" will notice an immediate and almost kind of startling upgrade in midrange and low end on either of the 5.1 offerings. I frankly didn't discern any real difference between the LPCM 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks, with both providing a really superb listening experience in terms of both nice articulation of often densely layered accompaniments (my hunch is the guys used some sequencers and then played live over those tracks) along with a spacious accounting of the rhythm section supporting Steve Hogarth's kind of plaintive vocals. There are some excellent examples of either stereo separation or surround activity, depending on track, which almost reminded me of some of the early "wide imaging" efforts from the dawn of the stereo age on such labels as Command. While only in stereo, the B-Sides and Bonus Tracks offer some very enjoyable songs. Fidelity is excellent throughout, and I can't imagine fans of the album not enjoying the Blu-ray audio presentation in any of its forms.

Marillion: Holidays in Eden Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While of course the uneducated may think of the Blu-ray disc in this set as the supplement (that's a joke, folks), one way or the other this handsome looking DigiBook comes with 3 CDs featuring the 2022 remix of Holiday in Eden on one disc and the September 30, 1991 Live in Hammersmith concert on the other two CDs. The DigiBook itself features a really interesting, in depth essay by Rick Wilson which will be a treasure trove for the band's fans, along with lots of photos, lyrics to all of the songs on the album and some more whimsical illustrations.

Marillion: Holidays in Eden Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Probably like a lot of listeners on this side of the pond, I first became aware of Marillion courtesy of Kayleigh, which remains their highest charting single in the United States. Ironically, I'd personally rate that tune as pretty far down on the originality scale when compared to some of their other stuff (which perhaps comically may indicate why it charted so highly here, and, yes, that's another joke). There is a lot of really gorgeous material on Holidays in Eden, and this release offers lovers of Blu-ray audio three nice sounding options to enjoy the album, along with some nice video content, including a Behind the Music type documentary. Technical merits are solid (with the caveat about the archival video, as mentioned above), and Marillion: Holidays in Eden comes Recommended.