The Dutch melodic rock A Day’s Work drew my special attention because they are compared to Marillion (a band I absolutely love) as well as U2 (a band I absolutely hate). It’s not without reason that I had a hard time rating this release that to me is full of contradictions. On the one hand there are some really nice tracks on ‘A Home In The Rain’, especially the guitars are an obviously Marillion reference. Yet, some of the songs sound too easy, too obvious and a little bit too popular. There’s not a single moment that the band truly surprises: the obvious U2 reference.

The track ‘My Ambulant Careless’ is a fine example of the troubles you might run into by using references.

I bet that the track was originally titled ‘Beautiful Day’ (the text in the refrain). This one has written U2 all over it and probably forced the band to rethink and change the original title. I know that a lot of you might expect me to bash the band for copying the Irish pop rockers. I won’t.

My personal preferences put aside I can’t conclude otherwise than that A Day’s Work has succeeded in producing a popular release with hit potential and a huge sound that is absolutely closer to U2 than Marillion.