FISH OUT OF WATER

After the appearance of the glorious RELAYER, when all members of Yes released solo albums, only three of them came up with (more or less) convincing results. Jon Anderson produced a rather embarrassing science-fiction fairytale which contained a couple of fine tunes. Patrick Moraz came up with wild, half-Brasilian jazz-rock fusion. And Chris Squire emerged with an album so conceited and self-satisfied that over half of it proved unlistenable. To this day I do not understand how someone can write a supposedly delicate love song like "You by my Side", and then spoil it completely by bleating out the lyrics as insensitively as possible. To say nothing of that overblown orchestral finale to the same piece! Similarly, the so-called 'canon' at the end of "Safe" (instrument after instrument taking up the same dire melody, accompanied by Chris on bass) simply must have been meant to show how many musicians Mr Squire could afford to pay...

Fortunately, the Fish also pulled off TWO great performances which actually trumped anything his colleagues from Yes then had on offer. "Hold out your hand" is an exciting opening number with delightfully 'floating' organ playing, more convincing than the similar "Parallells", which would appear two years later on GOING FOR THE ONE. And "Lucky Seven" is superb: Squire, Bill Bruford and the gorgeous Mel Collins conspiring to give us a catchy, funky tune which proves how much music they have in their blood.

If only Chris had kept FISH OUT OF WATER simple, and left out those orchestral excrescences! Two and a half stars.