FISH

1997. It took me time but finally Marillion without Fish was as irremediable as it demonstrated it still made sense. Hogarth was good, and helped the band to experiment new directions although Fish had such a very special charism. We could finally "live without him" and still appreciate the fantastic band. It´s still a personal analysis but I would summarize : the great musicians found another great singer, even if arguably a decent lyrics writer. Steve is probably more adaptable to his colleagues whereas Fish left little room around him.

What about Fish as a solo artist? He certainly is an impressive writer and probably more charismatic as a singer than his successor. And musically...well he is basically a singer ! And his effort in making albums seemed to fluctuate over time. I would hardy consider the man as a perfectionnist. Each time he released an album the guy had something to say, for sure. But whatever the technique ? Certainly a tad unfair but... This weakness translated into an heterogeous series of albums, intensified by the continuous changes in the board of musicians involved in the projects.

This time : Sunset on Empire. The great singer, the fantastic songwriter, was strongly inspired and extremely well supported by an immensely talented musician, namely Steven Wilson. As a result : The first song of the album is already among the best songs Fish as ever released (even with Marillion) And it does not take long to know it. For me it was a great shock after less than a minute !

I do love the potent energy, rather postive overall that emanates from that album (another good example is Brother 52)

The other songs are good enough to complete a very good album. The result is more than enjoyable and gives you a strong urge to play it again after the last song.

One last word in this 2013 review : the man did it again in 2007 : 13th Star deserves 5 stars !

Monpierrot

After releasing four neo-progressive rock classics with Marillion in the eighties', Fish parted ways with the band in 1988 due to internal struggles and creative differences. Marillion went on to release the excellent Seasons End with new vocalist Steve Hogarth in 1989, and Fish released his debut, Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors, the following year; though the album was finished being recorded in mid-1989, it was delayed until early 1990 in order to avoid conflict with Marillion's new record. Whilst neither Seasons End nor Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors quite managed to match the magnificence of Marillion's early masterpieces, both were tremendous releases that proved that fans of the band had no reason to lose sleep because of Fish's departure.

Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors features nine songs, all of which are composed by Fish with assistance from Mickey Simmonds (who would later collaborate with Camel and Renaissance), Janick Gers (of Iron Maiden fame), or Hal Lindes (best known for his work with Dire Straits) depending on the track. An impressive cast of songwriters for sure, and it definitely shows in the music; although this may be a solo album from a singer, the instruments don't feel like they've taken a backseat to the vocals at all. The music is melodic neo-progressive rock in the vein of early Marillion, but there are a few notable differences. For one, Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors comes across as a bit more pop-oriented, especially in a track like "Big Wedge" with its Phil Collins-esque horn arrangements. It's not something I particularly care for, but it's still a decent track. There are also touches of Scottish folk music in "The Company" - something that would be even more prominent on Fish's next record - and a heavily orchestrated ballad in the form of "A Gentleman's Excuse". A truly beautiful song with Fish's trademarked lyrical prowess, this one is a fine example of a sappy ballad done right.

There are also a few more standard sounding neo prog songs like "Vigil" and "Family Business", the latter of which deals with the horrors of domestic violence using some of Fish's most powerful lyrics ever penned. I also love John Giblin's bass guitar contributions to this track - his melodic and soloistic style of playing really adds another dimension to the music. "Cliche" is another big highlight, with its beautiful melodies and excellent lead guitar work making it one of the album's most memorable tracks.

Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors might not have too much appeal to Marillion naysayers or newbies to neo-progressive rock, but any fan of the genre is likely to find a lot to enjoy here. With great songwriting, professional musicianship, and tremendous lyrics all delivered through a crystal-clear production, it's tough to not recommend this to any early Marillion fan. Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors is a great start to Fish's career as a solo artist and an essential purchase for fans of the man's voice.

An elegant suit

Fish's two first solo albums, Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors and Internal Exile, both featured some really great songs (most notably the respective title tracks), but unfortunately also some rather weak and even slightly embarrassing ones. The present album never quite reaches the highs of those two albums, but it also never really sinks to their lows. As such, Suits is a more even album even if there are some lesser tracks in the middle of the album.

There is a somewhat broader set of musical influences here with many subtle but noticeable Folk and World-Music elements. Even if not all of this album is precisely my cup of tea, it is nice to see Fish try out some new things. It may not be the kind of Neo-Prog anymore that Marillion fans would expect. But, who knows, maybe this would appeal to a completely different set of people altogether (if they only heard it)?

Fish's vocals are as good and distinctive as always and the material is actually quite good with only a few bearable exceptions. The opening track, Mr. 1470, is probably my favourite track here, but also Lady Let It Lie, Fortunes Of War, and some others are not bad at all.

Good, but hardly essential

Fish's run of studio albums since Sunsets on Empire continue to show a high level of consistency; 13th Star, his most recent piece, essentially finds his songwriting following the general principles he's followed from that point, though things stay varied with the album's more mellow, contemplative tone.

The familiar refrain of "Where do I go from here?" from Clutching at Straws raises its head again - which must have made for some electrifying concerts back when the album came out, since it was premiered on the Clutching at Stars tour which mixed together songs from the two albums - and the parallels drawn do make sense, since once again we find Fish in a self- critical mood. Whereas Clutching saw him tackling the difficulties of his relationship with alcohol, 13th Star analyses his romantic history, which has never been particularly stable, and finds him pondering how things just never seem to work out for him in that regard. It's fairly raw subject matter, in other words, though Fish once again does a great job of crafting a listenable and entertaining album around it.

Field of Crows is a catchy collection of enjoyably prog-tinged rock songs from Fish, with all the usual emotional and social commentary issues he loves to include in his lyrics present and correct. This is, of course, precisely the sort of thing Fish has regularly attempted to create - it's what Vigil In a Wilderness of Mirrors was meant to be, for instance - but he's never succeeded to quite this extent before. The sidestep back to a more full-blooded prog direction for the albums from Sunsets on Empire to Fellini Days seems to have helped the songwriting process here - plus, once again Fish seems to have a good songwriting partner in the form of Bruce Watson. Either way, it's the most successful album of the more poppier side of Fish's sound by far, and it's another great album in the streak of successes that began with Sunsets.

Fellini Days continues the enormously artistically successful phase of Fish's solo career that began with Sunsets on Empire. As on Sunsets, the secret is that Fish teams up with a talented musical partner who can craft a evocative musical backing for the lyrical themes Fish wants to explore. On Sunsets, that was Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree; here, Fish has John Wesley, and often has contributions from John Young sparking things up too.

This album revolves around Fish's admiration of the movies of Fellini, and uses that as a jumping-off point to play with some of the themes tackled in those films. As far as thematic concepts go, it's an odd niche to go for, but Fish and the two Johns manage to make it work wonderfully. The album has a sunny, relaxing, Mediterranean aura about it which you wouldn't think would work with Fish's latter-day crossover/neo sound, but it actually works remarkably well - think the musical approach of Raingods with Zippos as reimagined by French sophisti- pop auteurs like Air, and perhaps sprinkle a little Stupid Dream/Lightbulb Sun/Recordings-era Porcupine Tree into the mix for good measure.

And as for Fish's performance itself? Once again, Fish seems fully engaged with the material and delivers a marvellous performance. I suppose from Sunsets On Empire onwards Fish realised that to get the best out of his performances he needs to work with material which he loves rather than casting about for material he thinks a mass audience might get into - and the success of this album just proves that. Fish might be talking about his tastes in movies, but his enthusiasm is infectious - and it certainly helps that the lyrical themes he plays with engage usefully with ideas ranging beyond the narrow concept. Film night with Fish must be an entertaining and memorable experience, if this album's anything to go by.

Fish's first release on Roadrunner finds him consolidating the artistic gains made on Sunsets on Empire. The album is a little less cohesive than its predecessor, but it's also a little more broad musically speaking, with tracks ranging from the comparatively commercial to the decidedly experimental.

In the former category, Fish takes us on the first side through a diverse set of art rock songs which include a brilliant cover of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band's track Faith Healer, in a version which I'm inclined to say is better than the original. (In fact, the first time I ever heard Fish sing was when this song was played on the radio in the small hours on the rock show on a radio station I could only barely receive.)

But the crown jewel of the album is A Plague of Ghosts, the sidelong track. No rip-off of Plague of Lighthouse Keepers this; instead, Fish takes us on a musical journey which encompasses both the neo-prog styles of his early career and some cutting-edge stuff, including some influence from modern electronica and dance music here and there. At this point Fish, like his former bandmates in Marillion, was settled into producing music which he wanted to produce without any reference to what people thought a Fish album should sound like, and though I don't think this album is quite the classic Sunsets was, it stands as proof that its predecessor was no flash in the pan and that Fish's creative juices were flowing to an extent they hadn't since Clutching At Straws.

The first few years of Fish's solo career were turbulent ones. His debut album was reasonably well-received, although I'm personally inclined to say that was more down to people being relieved it wasn't flat-out awful as opposed to a consequence of it actually being particularly good; either way, his next few albums were even less interesting, and in setting up his own record company he ended up flooding the market with numerous interchangeable live albums to confuse things even more.

Despite not being much of a commercial success at the time, artistically Sunsets On Empire is where things started to go right again. Teaming up with a top-notch musical partner in the form of Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson was an absolute genius move, because Wilson is able to craft a sound for Fish which hits precisely the combination of progressive leanings and crossover appeal that Fish had always seemed to strive for but hadn't quite managed to get right up to this point. Add this to Fish penning the most intelligent and thought-provoking lyrics of his solo career to date and bringing to the table an excellent vocal performance which for the first time since Clutching At Straws convinced me that he really believed in the ideas and emotions he was conveying, and you have one hell of an album.

In fact, I'd argue that the piece is a milestone both in Fish's solo career and in the overall progression of Steven Wilson's music - after this, Porcupine Tree would take an indie rock-influenced song-oriented approach for a couple of albums, which seems in part to be an application of the ideas developed here to the PT sound. In short, it's the coming together of two of the most important figures in British prog - one who helped revive the scene in the 1980s, and one who reinvented it from the 1990s onwards - and the more I listen to it, the more I'm convinced it's a full-on classic. "Can we say it's all worked out, it's all OK?" asks Fish on the gorgeous and minimalistic closer Say It With Flowers, and yes, Fish, this time around it's worked out fine.

Fish latest studio album to dat from 2007 named 13th star is another dull and forgetable album to my ears. This is even worse then Sunsets, with mid tempo almost all the time, sounds to modern to me and in some places I swear I'm listning to some alternative/rock album , not progressive rock. The album is easy to listen, and I can't find that special passages that everyone praiseing here, really. Is almost a generic album, a rock album yes but progressive and even neo how is labeled here, no way. Again I had hard times listning to this record from start to finish, but after some spins I had enough for the next 100 years. Instrumental passages, almost none, are not necesarly bad, but totaly uninspired and to modern for my taste, rock and that's all. Sorry to disappoint the fans of this great musician, but his solo album are hard to digest, at least for me, and I can't understand what is so excellent about the music that this album is considered one of his best. 2 stars

2.5 actualy

From the beggining I must say that I'm no fan of Fish solo career, everything he release after the departure of Marillion to me is totaly uninspired and flat, and at some point some of his albums are not prog at all, are rock albums with good lyrics and nothing more. I know 4 albums from his catalogue, Internal exile, this one, Suits and 13th star, but not one gave me a very good impression overall. This one Sunsets on empire released in 1997 is almost ok, the opening track The Perception of Johnny Punter is good rock piece, the rest are almost mediocre at best, and I don't really care if Steve Willson was involved in the making of the album, to me remains a fairly unpleasent album overall. I do can appreciate that he is one of the best lyricist in prog music, but musicaly doid almost nothing for me and I had hard times listning to this at once. He has a good voice and I like him a lot in Marillion but here, from whispering passages to more louder sections, he always tries to take the face of the instrumental arrangements, who are already not fantastic and to few. So, 2,5 star to Sunsets on empire, great cover art and all , but the arrangements fail to impress me, this is not the kind of prog I want to listen every day.