When it comes to talking about the Scottish singer Fish, there
\nare a couple of schools of approach. Number one is the fan who has
\nfollowed his work from the days he spent fronting Marillion in the
\n’80s; they might have a harder time separating his solo efforts
\nfrom the work he did with Marillion. Then, there’s my school:
\nsomeone who heard precious little of Fish’s work until getting his
\nlatest solo release,
\nRaingods With Zippos<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Now, I immediately realize that I’m put at a disadvantage in
\nthat I can’t compare his work to either his days with Marillion or
\nany of his other solo albums. However, letting this disc be my
\nmaiden voyage allows me to ignore all the words written about him,
\nand approach the disc with unbiased ears. And, taking the disc via
\nthis manner, it proves to be reminiscent of Genesis in many ways,
\nbut is both original and entertaining.<\/p>\n
The gentle piano strains that open “Tumbledown” help to lure the
\nlistener into a false sense of security; before you know it, Fish
\nand his backing band whip things into an electric frenzy, and take
\nthis tune into areas previously thought untouchable. Some of the
\nchord progressions on this one are a bit uncomfortable, though, and
\nthis might not have been the best way to kick things off.<\/p>\n
After a decent but uninspiring performance on “Mission
\nStatement,” Fish really gets things cooking (no pun intended) with
\nthe next group of songs. “Incomplete” is carried to new levels
\nthanks to the duet between Fish and Elisabeth Antwi; it really does
\nhelp to hammer the point of the song home. Likewise, “Tilted Cross”
\nis a song that is both haunting and beautiful, and is one that will
\ncaptivate the listener.<\/p>\n
There are two high points to
\nRaingods With Zippos<\/i>. The first is Fish’s leaning towards
\nthe “hit single” with “Faithhealer,” a track that sounds a lot like
\nvintage Peter Gabriel without sounding like he was trying to mimic
\nGabriel’s sound and style. I vaguely remember some stations in
\nChicago around 1985 giving some airplay to Marillion’s
\nMisplaced Childhood<\/i> album – one of the albums featuring
\nFish. It would be nice to see things come full circle and have
\nradio give “Faithhealer” a chance.<\/p>\n
And then, there is the six-part “Plague Of Ghosts” that dares to
\npush the musical envelope. There are a few songs in this suite that
\nI easily could have plucked out as potential singles, but Fish has
\nwritten the music so that the songs both relate to and overlap each
\nother. And, in the end, I think that this was the right decision;
\nthe interplay between “Digging Deep” and “Chocolate Frogs” or
\n“Waving At Stars” and “Raingod’s Dancing” is quite important to the
\nsuccess of this whole piece.<\/p>\n
One would think that you would need some patience in order to
\nreally be able to appreciate Fish’s style of rock (somehow, I don’t
\nfeel right calling it progressive). However,
\nRaingods With Zippos<\/i> is an album that you can appreciate
\nalmost right out of the starting gate, despite the brief stumble at
\nthe beginning of the album. If anything, this is the type of album
\nthat should get the listener interested in the rest of Fish’s
\nbackcatalog.<\/p>\n
\nRaingods With Zippos<\/i> is an album that hopefully will start
\ncatching fire soon – even if it has to build a real head of steam
\nwith word-of-mouth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7456],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-39107","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-fish","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39107"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}