FELLINI DAYS

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.