INTERNAL EXILE

Not as strong as Vigil.., although there're some strong tracks like the fantastic album opener "Shadowplay" which sounds like a mini-rock opera. "Credo" and "tongues" are also excellent tracks which are quite heavy when compared to Marillion or Vigil. But there's also weak tracks like "something in the air" (coverversion of the well known sixties track)or "favorite stranger". The album sounds less progressive as his predecessor, Fish is moving to a rock and rough sound instead of progressive. His keyboard wizzard Mickey Simmonds who did an excellent job on Vigil wasn't the main composer anymore and maybe this is the reason why the album sounds the way it does. Other band members didn't seem to succeed in keeping the level high. Although songs like "lucky", "dear friend" or just good friend" are nice songs, they are too much easy-listening for my cup of tea. Overall it isn't a bad album but it could have been better. Maybe that's the reason the album selled poorly. If you buy the album, try the 1997 remastered version as it contains two extra tracks, the excellent symphonic "poets moon" and the rocking "Carnival man".

Somehow, I always considered "Internal Exile" FISH's true first solo album."Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors" wasn't bad. In fact, it was quite a revelation but I found it a bit too contrived; as if the man took himself a little too seriously on it. With "Internal Exile", however, he really lets loose and seems completely at ease, for once. With its tight, albeit simpler musicality, the album is more raw and has a much 'cleaner' feel, a style that suits FISH like a glove. His intelligent, biting lyrics are greatly advantaged by such a style and although the production is far from perfect, you'll find on "Internal Exile" quite a few memorable tunes that showcase FISH's undeniable compositional ability. Not overly progressive but fun, and a foretaste of great things to come.

It's not an excellent album but some tracks are worth enjoying. "Shadowplay" is really the best track of this album. I love this track since the first time I listened to this album. The song is really energetic with some thematic style especially when Fish sings in a poetry reading style. Talking about this style, it reminds me to Marillion "Misplaced Childhood" album where there are many songs with similar singing style. This track is opened with a silent keyboard sound with a great melody. The music than immediately enters its body with a dazzling rhythm ( I like the vibraphone-like sound in this opening). It then was followed by Fish voice "Hunched foetal in the corner of my soul ." WOW! It's really great opening! It really reminds me to early Marillion music! Fish vocal quality is really excellent! "I saw your life as a shadowplay .". I think this track is one of the best songs that Fish has ever produced. So uplifting, so stunning! I don't really mind if this song was played by Marillion with Fish as lead voice. Another world, actually there was no reason the members of the band to reject this kind of music if this would experience the same as "Family Business" was rejected. It's a pity.

Second track "Credo" is another uplifting and upbeat track. The tagline melody is also excellent. In this track, Fish still maintains his high tone vocal in a controlled way even with this relatively rocking track. "Just Good Friends (close)" is a slow track but it's not as nice as Marillion's "Sugar Mice" or "Chelsea Monday" or "She Chameleon". I consider this track is good if I listen to it in the right mood. Otherwise, it's just an ordinaru track. "Tongues" is another track that is good to enjoy (especially its unique sound "auuuummmm..."), but "Internal Exile" is more interesting as it has better ingredients of tight composition. This title track is influenced heavily by traditional Scott music. It's a perfect blend of rock and traditional music. Good track!

Overall, this album are good with some excellent tracks: "Shadowplay" (masterpiece!), "Credo" and "Internal Exile". Some influence of early Marillion is still there but it's not much. Rating 3 / 5. Gatot Widayanto, Indonesia.

So much to say

Fish's second album is very much a straight follow on from his first. The emphasis is still very much on the lyrics and vocals, with any instrumental passages being kept noticeably brief. With eight 4-6 minute pieces (my version does not include the cover of "Something in the air") the melodies are once again reasonably strong. I do get the impression though that Fish's main focus is on the lyrics, and vocal delivery. "Credo" is great fun in a live situation, but here the repeated "it don't mean nothin'" rings rather too true.

There are of course, a number of good moments and passages. The opening section of "Just good friends" has a "Seasons end" feel and some fine guitar work, although here the lyrics strike me as naïve and simplistic. "Dear friend" is a touching soft ballad, which contrasts sharply with the following, darker "Tongues". The closing title track has a very Celtic feel, climaxing in a rousing accordion reel played by Donald Shaw of Capercaille.

In retrospect, it's easy to see why Fish had to move on from Marillion. He had so much he wanted to say, it would have taken him years to do so within the confines of a band. A good album though, if a bit variable.

After leaving Marillion to pursue a solo career, Fish (or Derek Dick) released his first solo album Vigil In a Wilderness of Mirrors in 1990. His next album, released in 1991, Internal Exile, would take a sound similar to Vigil and doesn't really stray far from that sound. Sure, there are some great songs on this album, but for the most part, it's just too similar to the first album to be anything spectacular. Now don't let me be the first to say this, but the lyrics are top notch. Mr. Dick has such a way with words that everything he writes is nothing short of captivating lyrically. I wish that were the case with a few of the songs here, those ones feel too uninspired and contrived. The musicianship on this album ranging from unison guitars wailing to celtic inspired flute rhythms. Some of the music written is well crafted and fun to listen to, but some just doesn't come off right and some just doesn't have the right feel.

The album opens with two very strong songs. Shadowplay features some great lyrics and vocals from Fish as well as some strong keyboard playing from Mickey Simmonds. Frank Usher and Robin Boult are also great on guitar on this track. Credo has a strong chorus and catchy verses, with the word Credo being said continuously throughout the entire song. Just Good Friends has a passionate and sincere vocal from Fish, but the lyrics are a bit sappy and the music is uninteresting. Favourite Stranger is a forgettable piece, but I quite like the vocals and the guitar work. Lucky is strong piece with a terrific chorus about being born lucky, probably one of my favorite songs on the album. Dear Friend is another throwaway piece that goes nowhere fast.

Tongues is probably my favorite piece on the album. It's a very guitar oriented piece, as well as dark piece that has some terrific lyrics from Fish as well as a catchy chorus that is augmented by a female vocalist repeating the lyric, "We are speaking in tongues". Internal Exile is a celtic/folky piece that brings up Fish's heritage yet again (he even brings up the ever triumphant road of Lothian). A catchy chorus and some strong musicianship rounds out this song that closes the original album. As a treat, a cover of the song Something In the Air is featured. It's an ok cover, a bit interesting, but nothing I would call spectacular.

In the end, the bitter poet that wrote songs like Fugazi and Script for a Jester's Tear has left that style of writing and is in favor for more personal pieces, but he still retains that bitter edge that makes him so great. In the end, I think that Internal Exile is a good album, but it's no way near the best Fish album available. I would recommend either Vigil In a Wilderness of Mirrors or Raingods With Zippos for the unseasoned Fish fan (no pun intended). 3.5/5.

I had to go around the bush so many times to come up with a review for this album. Meaning, despite of knowing this isn't certainly the best album by FISH yet the worse of them all. I found so many variations here compared to "Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors", but happened to like them somehow. The album is playful, less whimsical and very amusing. I must confess that listening to this particular album among many others, gets me in the right kind of mood. Maybe it's the simplicities, the unelaborated narrative or the contagious rhythms. "Shadowplay" is for instance, the kind of song that raises my spirit incredibly, it's got this spark to be considered some kind of "Scottish battle song", in the good way I mean. On the other hand and right after, "Credo" is definitely one of my favorite songs by FISH because it's got the lightness and ironically the wit and the beat to make you sing, jump and scream endwise. That happened to me when I sang the song along Derek and other two thousand devoted souls at his last show in Mexico City last August 18th 2006. Just amazing!

It's not that the album goes from astonishing to plain in a matter of chords, for it's the fact that there are no elaborated suites or complex arrangements. "Internal Exile" is as experimental as convincing if you just let the Progressive harshness on the side. The purpose is simple, yes, and it accomplishes quite well. Such thing is displayed over "Just Good Friends", which is to me this fine ballad that reminds me of the emotiveness FISH's got deep inside, but showed in a joyful way. The album is perfectly suited with the unmistakable Frank USHER on lead guitar along Robin BOULT, and hardly to oversight, the presence of Mickey SIMMONDS on his magic keyboards. Almost the entire album goes straightforward, until we reach a real eyebrow rising, underrated track which is "Tongues". For me, the supporting piece of this pleasant experience. Finally, some provocative lyrics, some acid romance and this power so representative of FISH behind the mic. The song is self-collapsing, unique and catchy. Not in the commercial way, but in the way you feel like you've spoken out loud this words some time making you feel the ballad a real part of you. And if it wasn't enough, FISH howling away during the choirs is as fantastic as unbelievable. Honestly, that reminded me of the FISH that once was master of the spotlight during his MARILLION years. Overall, great stuff.

And finally, the song named after this album. Just made me smile out of joy the first time I listened to and still it makes me smile ear to ear. I sense this spiritual freedom, this amusement, the practical and unique of how FISH could get if he determines to do such thing. I confess I've danced to "Internal Exile" more than a couple of times, specially right at the final part where it all goes crazy and surprisingly out of balance. "Say yer Scottish!" I would add in here at the pure style of "Margaret". Incredible song. Very amusing and cheerful. And well, "Something In The Air" is somewhat relaxed and conventional, if hard on my opinion, some sort of rock ballad that scratches the "poppier" more than the "progressive". Very mellow and schmaltzy, but that's just FISH, displaying this kind of unpredictable mood swings whenever he's got the chance to do so. All in all, "Internal Exile" is a good keeper. Yes, non-essential but definitely, different from what we've listened to over the years by FISH.

This second solo album is a good continuation of his work. The charm of his great voice is always fascinating and song writing is above average.

As most of lead vocalist would do, Fish strongly privilege dense lyrics; but it is just normal I guess. As long as he will write great songs as "Shadowplay" which is still in-line with his Marillion work, it is fine. The best song from this album.

Fish is investigating some world music ambiance with "Credo". A bit repetitive maybe, but still a strong composition. But the man is particularly gifted of course. The first song to feature some interesting instrumental part is "Just Good Friends". As commercial as some genuine "Marillion" songs could be, and as pleasant.

The big man won't write pure jewels on Internal Exile. If you take "Favourite Stranger" you will be confronted with the first weak track from this album. Melody less, it has almost no structure and its ambient and uniform mood sounds dull.

This album might not be as strong as his debut but the level of the music proposed here is pretty good overall. "Lucky" for instance features some good melody and even if "Dear Friend" is a little weaker, a good guitar break comes at the rescue.

The level is increasing again with "Tongues". Of course, this album might seem to lack of variety but I prefer to listen to good but similar numbers than to boring different style ones. In this respect, "Tongues" would please any Marillion (the genuine one of course) fans. Another highlight.

The folkish mood of the title track is not the best experience. A casting mistake, maybe. Like the cover for "Something In The Air". A number one UK hit from "Thunderclap Newman" in 1969 (produced by Pete Townsend). It is unfortunately a poor closing number but you shouldn't forget that there are little like this on "Internal Exile" which I consider as a good album. Three stars.

The man who would be Peter Gabriel.

I can't say I ever appreciated Fish's work. Marillion, while he was a member always sounded like a second rate Genesis. Fish's voice even sounds somewhere between Gabriel's and Phil Collins'. Then there was the act of leaving the band he helped make popular (so to speak) at the height of their success (so to speak).

So here is Fish's second solo album. Mine has a different cover than the one posted here, but at least he's not posing in a wet car, or displaying finger trails. You get a couple of passable prog songs, like Marillion, that sound like Genesis knockoffs, a few songs that sound like they were "inspired" by some of Gabriel's solo work (one brings to mind Humdrum, and another, Solsbury Hill, complete with Gabriel-like shouts). There are also some very forgettable arena rock type songs.

But I really must mention the cover of Thunderclap Newman's Something In The Air. Either Fish is being extremely ironic (but I doubt it), or he misses the point. Here we have a song about coming revolution, and he arranges it in a bland corporate pop style.

Instead of Peter Gabriel, he has become Phil Collins.

Fish out of his waters

Despite a couple of weak numbers, Fish's first solo album Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors was very good. This second effort is clearly not up to par with it. Still, there are some good moments here like the opener Shadowplay and the very folky title track, but also some rather mundane numbers in the middle of the album. Indeed, Internal Exile is strongest at its beginning and at its end, and less good as we move towards the middle. Tongues is also among the better songs. Credo I sometimes find quite tedious as Fish repeats the title a little bit too much. Just Good Friends, Favourite Stranger, Lucky and Dear Friend are not awful, but rather forgettable. Had he taken the best few tracks from this album and put them on Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors replacing the weakest few tracks from that album, he would have a really strong album. But as it stands, this album is not good enough overall.

I'm afraid that there is not very much more to say about this album apart from a comment on the excellent title track. This song is an up-tempo Folk song with a great accordion solo. For me this is the absolute highlight of the album, surprising and surprisingly good! I actually wish that Fish would have made a whole album in this style!

I recommend this to Fish's fans, but I cannot help thinking that it is slightly disappointing

I slightly prefer Fish's second solo album over his debut. It's sure less consistent and the lows are lower, but by compensation, the heights are higher and Fish restores some of the folksy qualities that were almost entirely forsaken on the debut.

The album starts strongly with the mildly proggy Shadowplay, a song that could have featured on later Marillion albums. Fish still has too much to say and clutters the song with lyrics, but still, there's more room for the music here then on the debut. Also Credo allows for the musicians to flesh out the song material a bit. Both songs contain plenty of catchy melodies and folksy sing-a-longs. The next couple of songs are less remarkable, mainly sticking to balladry pop standards or rehashing older ideas. Isn't Lucky and obvious remake of Freaks? A third and last highlight comes from Tongues, the best Fish solo track I've heard. Something In The Air is a sidestep into synth/techno-pop areas that works quite well for me.

Overall this is a from outstanding album, but the few highlights work really well and have continued to get an occasional spin over the course of the years.

Somehow, in the 90´s, I lost sight of Fish´s solo career after his first album, even if I loved that CD a lot (see my review). It was only in 2002 that I´ve decided it was time to have a look at one of my favourite prog singers and poet. That was when I got the new remastered version of International Exile with a great booklet written by Fish himself and two bonus tracks for a quite reasonable price. Not bad!

I was glad I bought it later on. I suppose I´d see this work as a big disappointment then. The music here is much more dense, less melodic and, in some ways, more repetitive than on his first solo effort. Not that is bad. No! I really think that it has its charm and most of the tracks have a strong and subtle instrumentation that takes some time and attention to be fully appreciated. That said I must also say Internal Exile does have its flaws. Some of them might be tied to the difficult situations Fish faced at that period concerning his recording deal and some personal problems. Those are well explained in details on the CD´s booklet.

So it took me quite a long time to like this CD. Some of the lyrics (and, I believe, the music) reflects the turbulent phase. However, none of the tracks is really weak. But also I find hard to point a highlight. It seems to me like all tunes have its charm and power but also have something that drags them down one way or another. However I love the title track, one of his best folk influenced works ever (even if it was written around the time of the first album). His version of Something In the Air is also much better and more creative than Tom Petty´s, that was unfortunately released soon after Fish´s and hit the charts. Talk about bad timing! Interestingly enough, one of the bonus tracks, Poet´s Moon, is also one of the best with a fine melody line and great hook (something quite a missing on most of the tracks).

The lyrics are, as expected, brilliant. The man is definitely a great writer. The musicians involved are very skilful. Too bad that the melodies are not as strong as they were on Vigil In A Wilderness of Mirrors.

Conclusion: I see Internal Exile as a transitional work. It has its moments. But I can´t say it is on par with Fish´s best output. It is good. Sometimes very good. But in my opinion it is not excellent. If you´re a fan of Fish you´ll find some fine stuff here. If you´re new to his solo career, start with his first. Rating: 3 stars.

Vigil was a promising album and I was expecting much more from this follow-up. It was the time when I had to quit to be resistant to the new technologies and bought a CD reader, as very few titles were still available in vinyl format. This was one of my last vinyls.

The first unusual and somewhat unprofessional thing is that the lirycs of Shadowplay are printed incomplete. A note says that the label had printed the sleeve when they were not ready yet. "Shadowplay" looks so: an incomplete song. It's like it was meant to be a long track if not a suite, but it finished to be a 6 minutes song, quite similar in the structure to Vigil. Not a bad song, but nothing new.

If I'm not wrong, "Credo" is the tarck which should have been the album's "single", like Big Wedge on Vigil, but it's too repetitive and I find it particularily weak.

It's on the pop side that this album has the best things: form "Just Good Friends" to "Dear Friend" we have four very good songs, but there's not much prog inside. From a musical point of view they are closer to Phil Collins than to Peter Gabriel. Well don't take me too seriously, I like Fish much more than Phil Collins and I just wanted to give an idea, not to compare the two.

The original edition doesn't have the bonus track so I can't say anything about it. I won't buy it again for one song.

"Tongues" is a song that I don't like very much but it's not absolutely bad. In this case it's question of personal tastes. It doesn't meet mine.

The vinyl has just one track more. The title track is nice and not too much serious. It's a funny song with a celtic (Scottish) final. Let's dance....

Not a bad album at all, it was quite a disappointment for me as I was expecting something better, but it's an album that I still listen to sometimes (I have bought a very cheap CD edition which contains the same tracks of the vinyl). I think that the current rating that this album has on PA is appropriate. Just a little below 3 stars, but I can't give it 2,94...

Fish's departure from Marillion may have marked the end of one of the most important lineups in eighties' progressive rock, but the Scottish singer showed great promise as a solo artist with his 1990 debut album, Vigil In a Wilderness of Mirrors. Whilst it may not have been on the level of Clutching at Straws or Script For a Jester's Tear, Vigil is a strong collection of neo-prog compositions with captivating melodies and engaging lyrics. Comparatively, 1991's Internal Exile feels like a bit of a step down for Fish - although the two opening numbers (namely "Shadowplay" and "Credo") are fantastic, the album doesn't sound totally consistent from start to finish. It sounds like Fish was really searching for a distinct solo sound on Internal Exile, but didn't have songs strong enough to carry the weight of his stylistic ambitions. The album's heavy influence from Celtic folk music makes it an interesting stepping stone in Fish's solo career (and "Shadowplay" is worth the price of admission alone!), but on the whole, it isn't one of the man's strongest observations.

It's hard to get as excited about Fish's second album, Internal Exile, as one might like - after all, in the liner notes found on some CD reissues he all but acknowledges that it isn't his strongest work when considered as an album. There's undeniably solid songs here - Credo quickly became a lynchpin of his live set, for instance - but things don't hang together quite as well as on Vigil In a Wilderness of Mirrors.

To an extent, this isn't Fish's fault: 1990 and early 1991 had been a rough time for him. EMI had insisted on holding off on the release of Vigil, so as not to compete head to head with Marillion, which in practice meant that Fish lost a lot of momentum, and he badly overestimated the returns on the Vigil tour and ended up out of pocket. This prompted a contract dispute with EMI, when Fish felt they weren't offering him enough of an advance on the recording, and this quickly turned into a legal battle which would see the end of his working relationship with the label he'd been with since Marillion signed back in 1982, and would result in him signing to Polydor.

There were plenty of reasons, then, for Fish and his band to be somewhat off their game when they settled down to record this - but no matter how good the reasons are, the end result is still an album which feels a bit disjointed. Part of this feels like a production issue - the album was among the first material recorded in Fish's home studio, and a nervous Polydor sent Chris Kimsey, producer of Misplaced Childhood, along to make sure everything came out. The end result risks sounding over-slick and over-orchestrated at points, with Fish's voice occasionally being obscured in the mix by over-loud backing. Sure, Credo might have become a live favourite, but the initial pass here could do with a bit less of a heavy hand.

In addition, Fish and his band were incorporating aspects of Celtic folk music into the album, and it feels like a more folk-friendly production (rather one trying to fit everything in a straight-ahead radio-friendly rock mode) might have teased the better aspects of the sounds out.

It's a shame that the album sounds so disjointed, because thematically there's a strong concept here - Fish this time considering his relationship with his homeland of Scotland and the possibilities of Scottish independence, perhaps a bit of a fringe political view at the time but an idea whose time may well have come, given that pro-independence parties seem to have had a lock on the Scottish Parliament for successive elections and support for freedom from the clumsy hand of Tory-dominated Westminster is on the increase.

Does this also mean it's time to reappraise Internal Exile? I think perhaps it is. As with Vigil, it's certainly a step or two closer to mainline classic rock than Marillion ever were, though with Marillion themselves taking on their own set of broader influences from outside the prog world on Holidays In Eden this is perhaps all to the good, both sides of the divorce establishing some clear water between their current work and their old, as well as between each others' approach.

Perhaps the difference is that whilst EMI seem to have let Marillion continue their development organically (at least at this stage of the proceedings), Chris Kimsey's production on the album seems to be trying to keep Fish in a 1980s classic rock mode, and the album to me is at its best when a composition comes up which self-evidently can't be nudged in that direction, prompting the production to ease its grip a little.

The opening three songs all make me think "nice song, would be nice to hear it with different production", but my appreciation of the album perks up with Favourite Stranger, which has a musical backing which manages the same trick of somehow being laid-back and mellow but at the same time just a little uneasy that trip-hop was starting to perfect as its own at the same time. As a song, it might not be the best, but it does mark a moment where the production actually assists the music and improves on it. Then Lucky comes along, a really solid and stirring song where again the production is actually helpful, and the album really starts to soar.

It took a while for Internal Exile to grow on me, because I came to Fish through his work in Marillion and through some of his more progressively-inclined solo albums. Here, he's moving away from all that, and it seems evident that he's flirting with the idea of becoming a Celtic folk-tinged singer-songwriter (with a few nods to his prog past) rather than a more traditional rock frontman. Once I wisened up and realised that was the approach he was taking, I was able to appreciate the album much better - but the production on the early numbers doesn't set you up to expect that, which can be a stumbling block.

Call it three and a half stars, and dock half a star or so if you aren't interested in Fish taking a less proggy approach than typical for him.