FISH OUT OF WATER

I surely had read many good reviews of this album from many sites and some reviewers even considired it as the "lost Yes album" which is a very brave statement. After first listening I was slightly disappointed. Few bit weaker songs and really no masterpieces. After few more listenings I was getting on to the better side in making an opinion of this album.

The style is, In my opinion, clearly far from Yes. First and foremost, the album has no hearable guitars at all which I first considired very weird. But soon I had to realise that Fish Out Of Water is not a fully conventional album when in comes to instruments. Fish Out Of Water is mainly a bass album and surely it has wonderful bass playing from perhaps the worlds greatest bassist. Another thing worth noticing is the use of saxophone which would be totally out of question with Yes. The saxophone gives the album sort of a "broadwayish" style which does fit in it. The third catch is the rich use of flute which also gives the album nice feeling of balance.

The album is opened with exellent Hold Out Your Hand. If you like the first song you will definedly like the whole album. Superb bass playing is the propably the first you hear through the song with prominent accompany of orchestra in the backround and with exellent keyboard solo on the middle. The great opener is continued with more calm You By My Side which is more of a love song. Its ok but from here the downside begins. Chris Squire is one of the best bass players but not the best singer. He definedly is a good singer, atleast thousand times better than Steve Howe, but in some parts his vocals just don't fit. Squire fails when he tries to sing too high parts apparantly greatly influenced by Jon Anderson. I wish he would have replaced those parts with good instrumental playing as that is what he does best. However his vocals are mostly fairly enjoyable.

Now, In my opinion that is again, Squire hits the lovest part of the album and that is Silently Falling. It sounds like a pop song which is way too long (11:27) it is very much of repetitive vocals and in this song Squire sings in some parts quite weakly. The songs actually reminds me surprisingly much of Drama by Yes during the boring vocal parts. Luckily some of the good instrumental parts save this song from being a complete disaster.

After the weak part, rest of the album is highly enjoyable. Lucky Seven is a song with good singing and instrumental parts. More jamming and perhaps even bit bluesy song with exellent bass playing accompanied with catchy saxophone. The last song is a great closener lasting very progressive 15 minutes. Opened with pretty flute, orchestra & piano the song sounds like a real epic. The powerful theme, which carries the song trough nearly during its whole lenght is exellent. Without further explanations let me just say its a very good song.

Overall its hard to recommend this album for any particular group, since I don't think it sounds too much like Yes. Yes fans will propably enjoy it but I think other people might like it even more. The only minuses are some boring parts during vocals and perhaps Squire could have phoned Steve Howe to give a short visit on the album, but I'll try to keep it in my mind that it is mainly a bass album. Anyway if you are looking for good, easy going instrumental music with some singing you will surely enjoy this album. Not a masterpiece but fairly better than just an average "good" album.

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