FISH OUT OF WATER

Chris Squire's first and last solo album "Fish Out of Water," is a symphonic masterpiece. This record is often called the lost Yes album and for good reason. In 1975, just coming off of Yes' Relayer, Squire decided to put together a great lineup of musicians to record a very Yes-esque solo effort including Bill Bruford (King Crimson, Yes, UK), Mel Collins (King Crimson, Camel, Alan Parsons, Roger Waters), Jimmy Hastings (Caravan, Soft Machine, Hatfield and the North), and Patrick Moraz (The Moody Blues, Yes). This album has no bad song and is one of the highlights of Chris Squire's very deep career.

The album opens up with my personal favorite track, "Hold Out Your Hand." The church organ played by cathedral organist, Barry Rose, is some of the best church organ work in progressive rock. Squires vocals and bass work is marvelous with the thump of the bass line dominating the song. "You By My Side," is probably the weakest song on the album. It's ok but not on par with the greatness of the rest of the album. Its a piano driven love song which is very unlike squire. The ending is alright when the strings and horns come in, but overall the song is a little bit of bubblegum pop.

"Siltently Falling" takes up a massive portion of the album, sitting at about 11:00. After a symphonic opening, some pastoral Squire vocals enter. Around the 1:50 the main theme comes in dominated by a choir and piano chords. Chris never really got the attention he deserved as a vocalist in Yes, but on this album he shines. Especially on this tune his harmonies are spectacular. Patrick Moraz plays a magnificent organ solo on here as well. Around the 7:00 mark the song takes a shift into a piano driven variation of the main theme in a different key. The last 2 minutes of the song fade out in the key switch variation to end the epic. After the impressive prior track, Squire delivers his trademark/biggest hit, "Lucky Seven." The song is opened by very nice wurlitzer action. The bass lines on this track are acompanied by a very nice sax riff from Mel Collins, one of the greatest prog sax players of all time. The end of the song is dominated by a saxophone solo from Mel, over the rhythmic thump of Bill Bruford's drums.

"Safe (Cannon Song)," dominated side 2 of the record, sitting at a whopping 15 minutes! This epic is another very impressive track on this record. For the first few minutes the song plays around the same theme that develops with different variations. Flute and Saxophone interludes from Mel Collins and Jimmy Hastings are very common on this song. The track is very long, so my only take away would be that it does wander and repeat a little bit.

Overall, this album is very special from front to back. It brings in influences from Canterbury, Eclectic, Symphonic, and Classic prog. I recomend it to all lovers of Yes and U.K.