FIELD OF CROWS

Times change. It was only a few years ago when people would look forward to the release of a new Fish album. But nowadays, this release seems just like one of many others. And it's not because of the fans or the music lovers, but because of the artist and the record company. Over kill is a shame and if there's one artist that can say something has gone wrong, its Fish. It's all the reissues, the re-recordings and the less than worthy material that has caused the people to lose interest in the new material. The artist has to prove himself again before getting credit from the fans or from the music lovers in general. But the time for getting that credit again is over for Fish. Now was the time to come up with a really great prog album and that's exactly what didn't happen. If you take a look at all the official albums of Fish, you'll see that there are actually very few real prog albums there. If you really try, you could say that 'Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors' (1990) could be called prog, but all the other CDs, in the best case, are just good rock. And this is the case again. 'A Field of Crows' is a very good rock album, even one of the better ones from Fish. But that's where it stops. Several songs sound more than nice, some even strong to very strong (for example, "Exit Wound" and "Scattering Crows"), but there is no real prog song in the bunch. The only time that Fish recorded a real prog song (after having left Marillion) is, as far as I know, on the 'Into the Electric Castle' album (1998, "Isis and Osiris"). The music, in this case, was composed by Ayreon (Arjen Anthony Lucassen).

The question is whether or not the true prog lover should spend his hard earned cash on this CD or on some other CD by, for example, an unknown band that fulfils the prog desire. At the rate that prog CDs are released, you don't have to wait even a whole month to buy a good one.

I think it's a pity that a band like Fish, who was once a shining example of prog in the '80s, has not since then been able to reach the quality level of previous songs like "Script of a Jester's Tear" or "Fugazi". And that's already eight years ago. You be the judge.