Brand new
Opus from the Scottish singer, few years after the bitter-borned 13th Star.
Reuniting
with Robin Boult and with Foss Patterson (from the Internal Exile, Suits
days) and with Steve Vantsis on bass guitar for the creative force, the former
Marillion frontman delivers another disc. Always faithfully seconded by
Illustrator Mark Wilkinson, Fish delivers here a brand new rock album in two
editions, a traditional CD one and a deluxe with a dvd retracing the doubts stories
and forces colliding during the conception of the album and a 100 pages book
full of illustrations by Mark and his wife Julie.
I must of
course talk about the art because they are so perfectly intertwined. Mark
Wilkinson depicts and gives full life of the concepts between the songs that
taking a dematerialised support is loosing a third of the Art.
That said,
onto the music and the lyrics. The opening track is very progressive (in all
the meaning of the term), taking off slowly and installing a great atmosphere,
pretty much in the tone of the Apocalypse now movie.
The second
track cut short of that and delivers a good old rock with acid lyrics on the
reality TV and the desire of today to be famous for the sake of it. Very much
in the vein of Incommunicado.
The next
coming up is the obligatory ballad. The strength on this one (and pretty much
on all the songs) is the lyrics which are about, not lost love for once, but
the destruction of Mother Nature because of greed and no-action. The title
track is more on the relationship statement and much more rock.
Then, as it
seems that the album starts to slow its pace, comes the High wood suite. A big
blender of songs, calm, rocky which great orchestration who once again showcase
the craftsmanship of the Scottish lyricist. The Great world war is the theatre
of these songs, a wonderful retelling of the events, the calling, the fear, the
shells dropping and the dead and the survivors.
The album
comes to an end with two nice songs with nice vocal additions by Liz Atnwi.
So all in
all, what can be said of this album? Is it the greatest FISH album? No but it
is far from its worst.
FoC is a
great rock album with hints of prog whose primary strength are the great lyrics
and universe depicted by the singer who is nicely backed by good musicianship
and really great artwork. This album is definitely worth checking out from both
old and new listeners. Fish now sails more into a nice lyric-based rock but
songs like perfume river, shows that
the prog affiliation still holds its ground in term of ambiance and strength in
the very cinematic view of music that the singer has to offer.
