MISPLACED CHILDHOOD

Brilliant album, from beginning to end. Cohesive natural flowing music, with superb melody-lines, great musicianship and great storietelling. A masterpiece of progressive rock. This album should be consumed as a whole, a great journey through the soul and life of Fish, and the sublimised essence of neo-prog music.

Pseudo silk kimono, starts the journey, with a warm melodic/symphonic keyboard and delicate guitarplay (almost inaudible) creating a smooth atmosphere for our hero to hide in, cowering from reality and another heartbreaking experience. Kayleigh is the reason for his despair. Still warm and cosy the music for kayleigh sets in, in which Fish asks himself where it all went wrong, slowely the music becomes more edgy, with a wonderfull hauntin guitarpart from Steve and Fish apologising for the distance that grew between him and Kayleigh over time. Lavender is Fish reminiscing over the love gone by, and how things where easier when he was still a child, a cynical love song, with a marvelous guitarsolo (a bit overstretched on the single version).

Bitter Suite sees Fish exploring the cheap side of love, starting with a beautifull poem, with on the background some dark, ambient music, slowely evolving in a dark beatifull musical experience, with melodic high-pitched guitars and keyboards. Heart of lothian is an uptempo song, again with beatifull guitar, about the long friday nights, with the opportunities to score on the evening before the match :-)

Espresso Bongo starts of the second side/part of the album, with frantic drums, and haunting swift keyboard melodies. "when you think it's time to go, don't be surprised the hero's never show" sums up the intend of the song. Fish has become the lord of the backstage, but he's getting bored of "meaningless collisions" and it's time to settle down, but he is estranged from himself and the one he supposedly loves.

Blind curve sees the further desintegration of Fish, losing touch with his surrounding, ending up in a drug-crazed phantomic delerium, brilliantly reflected by the music, waking up from this craze, whe get the most cynical lyrics of fish in a heavy musical setting.

Then the real awakening, when fish realises he still has himself to lean on, and that the child within him is still alive, and he understands that he needs to go on with his own life and leave the thoughts of Kayleigh behind. all set in a colourfull musical landscape. the album closes with White Feather, an anthemic tribute to the strength of youth to change the world.

Of course this is just a rough sketch of how I interpret the album :-)

musically this is a tremendous album, with alternating changing moods, great melodies, soft melodic, and other times hard and edgy, but coherent throughout. A masterpiece of progressive rock. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED