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Chris Squire - Fish Out Of Water CD (album) cover

FISH OUT OF WATER

Chris Squire

 

Symphonic Prog

4.00 | 518 ratings

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AtomicCrimsonRush
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars Squire's triumph.

Squire's solo album that has really impacted his career, is "Fish out of Water" and, although Squire obviously was out of his depth on his own finally, and released to produce a solo album, along with fellow band members Anderson, Wakeman, Howe, Moraz and also Bruford, the result is a very refreshing approach to music.

'Hold Out Your Hand' begins proceedings and the very accomplished percussion of Bill Bruford is noteable immediately. Squire's vocals are extraordinary, very high in the register as much as Anderson. Patrick Moraz is always a wizard on keyboards, Andrew Pryce Jackman handles acoustic, organ, and orchestrations. The harmonies are strong and excellent always. The time sigs change constantly and this could easily fit onto a Yes album. It seems that Squire is one of the main components of the Yes sound as is obvious here. 'You By My Side' continues the Yes sound seamlessly from the opener, and features mesmirising beauty with Jimmy Hastings' flute. The orchestra is a symphonic embellishment that works so well with this style of music.

Mel Collins on saxophone and Hastings on flute opens the wondrous 'Silently Falling', a longer song at 11 ½ minutes. The warbling flute is joined by the high falsetto vocals. A crash of sound ushers in the rhythmic figure with a bass pulsation and soaring harmonious musicianship. The flute chimes back in with Barry Rose on pipe organ. There is a freak out of Moraz manic keyboards, a hypnotic groove with piano and bass, and Bruford is awesome with percussion accents and jazz explosions. This instrumental section is absolutely mind bending and it stops suddenly as divine horns come in, and Squire's vocals return, so pleasant to the ear. This is spell binding music weaving a spell on the listener.

'Lucky Seven' is a song with jazz keyboard and Squire's dominant Rickerbacker bass sound. Again his vocals are exquisite, and the snare sound of Bruford is a welcome augmentation to the feel. The song is a sensational jazz fusion piece with Moraz maintaining a strong rhythm. Squire is an accomplished bass magician and he almost launches into a solo over the soundscape. The alto sax is lovely, played so delicately by Collins and this track is really a showcase for the sax. The rhythm has totally locked in with the odd 7/8 meter and the sax is able to pour into the musicscape supplementing the splendour of the sound.

'Safe (Canon Song)' is a 15 minute epic with very strong bass, high falsetto vocals and orchestrated synths. The melody is bright and chirpy, very much like Yes in every respect, even the vocals sound a lot like Anderson. Squire certainly does not shy away from the Yes epic structure and even throws in some very nice flute and horn sounds. The interlude with thumping bass and whimsical flute and sax is one of the highlights of the album. This one really takes off into some bombastic territory and then is brought back with angular bassline and glorious violin sounds. The orchestral arrangement is stunning and lifts the music to the stratosphere. This continues for a long time and builds to a magnificent crescendo to finish with enchanting piano. Magnificent song.

The solo album for Squire is an incredible achievement, surpassing all expectations, even rivalling other Yes members' solo efforts as being the best of the bunch. It is even referred to as the "lost" Yes album. Every track on "Fish out of Water" is offering something extraordinary and as brilliant as Yes, and Squire showed he could produce something very special even though he may have felt like a fish out of water.

AtomicCrimsonRush | 4/5 |

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