I've never written one of these before, but I've seen other people do them - so here goes.
Fish is an artist I have suddenly rediscovered - through serendipitous circumstances I won't bore you with - and that's always an exciting experience for me.
Like many people I suspect, I was familiar in passing with
Marillion before lead singer
Fish left the group, but the reputation for concept albums, Fish's weird stage make-up and - let's be honest - an unhealthy obsession with harlequins, put me off. So when I discovered that I liked several singles from the new
Steve Hogarth incarnation of
Marillion, I kind of shrugged off
Fish as being the weird one, a belief which seemed to be reinforced by firstly seeing a maniacal character on the single cover for "Big Wedge" and then seeing what appeared to be Jessie Rae's younger brother on the cover of
Internal Exile. While
Marillion seemed to edge closer to commercial acceptance,
Fish became something of a cult figure, a strange cottage industry removed from ordinary music channels.
I rediscovered the singles "State of Mind" and "Big Wedge" back in 2001, and briefly tried to catch up with what was going on in the Fish-world. But the back catalogue was too large, too diverse, and - in the USA at least - too difficult to get hold of. So my interest waned.
But here we are in 2007, and this time around, I'm finding a lot to like in the lanky scot's myriad solo efforts. Hence a reappraisal is definitely in order.
By Fish's own admission, his debut solo album
Vigil In A Wilderness of Mirrors (which quite easily could have become the next
Marillion album) just took too long to come out. By 1990,
Marillion has received positive plaudits for the
Season's End album (and rightfully so, it's still firmly in place on my CD shelf) and
Vigil in some ways seemed like an afterthought or, even worse, an anticlimax. The problem was that while
Seasons had a clutch of radio friendly tracks, all of the songs on
Vigil needed a little space to grow, to subvert the listener by stealth. Frankly, the album was about 15 years too early. Listening to it again in 2007, the themes seem remarkably prescient. "Big Wedge", the closest thing to a hit single, berated corporate America, pay-as-you-pray religion, and dubious foreign policy. Tellingly, the single sleeve also featured an aircraft approaching the twin towers. "State of Mind", the first single, also had its charms, "a clarion call for a gentle uprising", as I believe
Q Magazine put it at the time. (Incidentally, it amazes me that I can forget where I parked at Wal-Mart but can still remember lines from CD reviews written 17 years ago about albums that I didn't even care for until much later) But other tracks on the album also had something to offer. For a more well-rounded assessment of what really was a pretty decent debut (in some quarters considered a prog-rock classic), you could do worse than listen to "
A Gentleman's Excuse Me", "
Family Business" or "
Vigil In A Wilderness of Mirrors" itself.
One of the first clues I had that I was going to need to reappraise Fish's work was the sudden realization that not only had I never actually heard the
title track to
Internal Exile before, but that when I did hear it, it sounded great and completely different to what I expected. For reasons that I will explain in another post, my tastes lately have been running towards the so-called "celtic fringe", a range of artist from the borders of Britain who make passionate, lyrically rich music. Hence the jaunty reel and singalong style resonated with me in a way I didn't expect. The album itself was somewhat disjointed, as
Fish wrestled with the direction he wanted his music to take. When you listen to the back catalogue as a body of work, you can't help but be impressed by the honesty, soul-baring, and sense of perennial bewilderment that Fish conveys in his compositions. When he addresses the romantic, he does so with a combination of abashed hopefulness and bruised naivety that is easy to identify with. Other highlights from the second album are "
Credo" (analyzing the first Gulf War) and "
Just Good Friends".
The third album
Songs From The Mirror stalled Fish's solo career faster than a cinderblock meeting a Maserati. In retrospect, it was unclear just who would be interested in covers of Argent, Pink Floyd, Sandy Denny and others.
Fish hit the nail on the head by pointing out that some would have been better served as B-Sides. Looking back, the album remains pleasant but nonessential. Try "
Fearless" and "
Apeman", but don't get your hopes up.
Having been dropped by EMI and then Polydor, Fish re-booted creatively by working with outside help and beginning his own record label, Dick Bros. The first studio-based fruit was
Suits, a fairly conventional set let down by poor mastering. Fish was learning as he went along, but highlights include "
Lady Let It Lie" and "
Fortunes of War". Be sure to track down the
remastered version if you want to add this one to the collection.
The next studio effort was
Sunsets On Empire, which was effectively the death knell of the Dick Bros label. In the days before the internet, MySpace, and file-sharing it was incredibly difficult to sustain a truly independent record label and as Fish's music, and muse, suffered it was clearly time for a fresh direction. Nonetheless
Sunsets is widely regarded as potentially Fish's best album overall, and the first one to try to recapture some of the progressive rock legacy that had earned such plaudits back in the early
Marillion days. Much this was due to a collaboration with Steve Wilson (from Porcupine Tree) who brought in contemporary ideas as well as being a long time fan. Highlights include "
Sunsets On Empire", "
Goldfish & Clowns" and "
Tara".
The creative (if not monetary) rejuvenation then led to 1999's
Raingods With Zippos, a curiously balanced album which included both some highly commercial work and a conceptual suite "Plague Of Ghosts", which proved that
Fish could deliver progressive ideas in an attractive and creative way. Interestingly enough, this critical renaissance coincided (in my own personal opinion) with the period when Hogarth-Marillion went off the rails slightly. I had enjoyed 1997's ambitious
This Strange Engine but 1998's
Radiation seemed forced (and unnecessarily derivative) and then 1999's
Marillion.com seemed to promise much but fell flat. Back to
Raingods, there are several highlights, including the ballad "
Incomplete" and the rockers "
Mission Statement" and "
Faith Healer". Very worthy of reevaluation.
I will be honest and say that I have not spent a lot of time with the successive albums,
Fellini Days (2001) and
Field Of Crows (2003). Both projects are obviously thoughtful and point towards a more commercial sound as well as the exploration of very personal ideas. Some jumping off points include "
So Fellini" and "
Moving Targets". I would welcome comments from others who have spent more time with these albums.
All of this really leads me to the latest Fish project, 13th Star. Until a few days ago, I had no idea that a new album had been released. Currently, it is only available from the official website, in a limited edition package with a DVD. Retail versions will be available next spring. As well as being an attractive visual package, all the early reviews, and my own personal impression, is that this is a very strong album, possibly the highlight of Fish's career to date. I may produce a more thorough CD review in the near future, but in the meantime I have to say that this album grabs you by the throat from the first track. There is a consistency and evenness to the album that many of the previous solo works did not have. Much of the credit can go to Calum Malcolm, previous producer for the Blue Nile, among others, who has coaxed a massive sounding album out of the enigmatic laird. There are a lot of highlights, but I particularly enjoyed "
Circle Line", "Arc of the Curve", "Zoe 25" and "
Openwater". Could be one of the best albums of 2007.
I would be doing Fish a disservice by drawing attention to his output without mentioning where to go and get them. The
Official Website is the place to find all these CD's, and in many cases the prices are very reasonable, particularly when most of the albums have been recently remastered with bonus tracks.
Fish is rightly perceived as a tremendous live artist, and as such there have been several live albums and other compilations, which I will not include in my review here. Suffice it to say, the official live albums are the place to start, but others do have their
good points.
I'll finish by mentioning the source of much of my information - an extensive 90 minute interview with Fish produced by Voiceprint [Update: the interview was excellent but the mp3 no longer seems to be available. I'll upload a new link if and when I can find another one]
and here
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Something a little different but in keeping with the holiday themes. Snowglobe as a band are impossible to pigeon hole, mixing a variety of instrumentation and unusual song dynamics to create an unusual and entertaining listening experience. I recently found their second album Doing The Distance for a few pennies. Here are three sample cuts:
One of the best things about being a total music junkie is that every day you wake up wondering what unexpected musical discoveries might come your way. Yesterday was a case in point. When you live close to an army base, you can be sure that the local thrift stores will have import CD's you're not likely to see many other places, in particular from Germany. That was pretty much the only reason why I picked up the self-titled debut album from Sven Schumacher. I had no idea even what kind of music it might be - blues, hard rock, folk. I figured it might have some resale value, and I kind of liked the classic car on the cover. And the money was going to a good cause, anyway.
I wanted to say a little more about the Freiheit single I posted a couple of days ago. I realize that it is a little out of keeping with many of my selections as (a) it was a bona fide chart hit and (b) has been maligned over the years as a sappy and uncool record. I was under the same impression, I guess.
The only Duran albums I've ever owned are the singles compilation Greatest and (briefly) the comeback album Astronaut. Given the complete lack of interest in the band in the late 90's, I was surprised that a new album was marketed so strongly. It's obvious that the band is trying hard, because the new album rocks hard in a very contemporary, dance floor orientated fashion. My all time favorite track is Save A Prayer, and I did miss somewhat the languid build up and plangent synths of that signature piece when listening to the new material. By comparison, the first single Falling Down included a less subtle melody line that proceeded to irritate and overpower the lyrics, so I wasn't thrilled. What I did like, however, were tracks like Nite-Runner and Box Full O' Honey which went off in unexpected dynamic directions and sustained a cryptic mood. Overall, a good listen and possibly a grower.
A similar story with Madonna, who also enlisted Justin Timberlake to assist with her new album. I'm a big fan of the dance grooves on her first album (now 25 years old!!) and although I have liked many of the subsequent singles, never really cared for an individual album. Hard Candy includes a bevy of "hot" producers who power up the BPM without really crafting anything with nuance or subtlety. While Candy Shop and the single 4 Minutes take off like rockets, it takes a couple of listens for the melodies of my favorite tracks Give In 2 Me and Miles Away to achieve the desired effect. Is it too much to ask for another "Live To Tell" or even "Crazy For You"?
Another bloody awful album cover, and an incomplete review. Apologies to devotees of the band (and there are many), but I'm not sure what it will take to interest me in an R.E.M. record again. I suspect it includes mandolins, slow songs about death, suffocation and bitter loss and weird titles like "Country Jackal Lament" and "Rhapsody Green". Credit the band with sticking to it, but when the touchstones include Green ("World Leader Pretend") Out Of Time ("Losing My Religion") and Automatic For The People ("Find The River") my ears are going to be dragged kicking and screaming through this album, based on the first handful of tracks. I have a nagging feeling that R.E.M. have never been more than the sum of their parts. To borrow from other reviewers: Accelerate is the best R.E.M. album since, well, since the last one. Probably.
Here's another recent classic that seems to have fallen out of print. I had the privilege of seeing Angie (short for Angelo) perform a solo set in Winooski, Vt. a couple of years after this came out (hence the signed cover) and over a pint I told him that this album was in effect a greatest hits album - every track could have been a worthy chart single. He seemed to appreciate that. Much of the power and apocalyptic sound of the album is thanks to the involvement of Matt Serletic (producer of Matchbox 20 and many other alternative rock acts) and he succeeded in wringing every nuance out of the thoughtful compositions and dramatic melodies. "Cry" is the best known track, being covered later by Faith Hill, and the lead single "Spaceship" briefly impacted MTV. My favorite tracks are the MLK inspired "Memphis City Rain", the jaunty "It's Alright" and a powerful commentary on contemporary life in the USA, the haunting title track "The American". But truthfully you could put this on random play and enjoy every track, in any order. I've added two extras - "Alone" was the B-Side of the Spaceship CD Single and "Nature's Way" was included on a later covers album project but I always thought it fitted in well in terms of sound and composition.
I was going to post a Clarkesville track ("Evergreen") yesterday, and then it occurred to me that most people have probably never heard of this group. My brother initially found a copy in a bargain bin and got it purely because there is a loose geographical connection to where I live. Shortly afterwards I found an import copy myself going cheap at Grimey's in Nashville. It's a good album, and definitely a grower.
I've never written one of these before, but I've seen other people do them - so here goes. Fish is an artist I have suddenly rediscovered - through serendipitous circumstances I won't bore you with - and that's always an exciting experience for me.
In case you hadn't already noticed, Christmas preparations are playing havoc with my blogging routine! So sorry to all those who keep waiting for things to return to normal. I hope you guys like variety!
I discovered Hard-Fi early last year thanks to the storming single "Cash Machine" which was belatedly released hear in the US. Already recognized as an Album of the Year in 2005, I got hold of the debut CD Stars of CCTV as soon as it was released here. Fast forward to 2007, and fortunately the new album Once Upon A Time In The West is available simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic.
