VIGIL IN A WILDERNESS OF MIRRORS

I do prefer this album to all albums that Fish has made with Marillion, and, at least for a short time, both of them had "won" from his departure. The songs are very strong, be it "Big Wedge" ( a minor hit here in Germany ), "Family Business", the gorgeous "Gentleman's excuse me" or the heart-moving "Cliché" ( how true these words ! ), to name but my favourites. His backing band ( including Hal Lindes who had been a short-time member of the Dire Straits during their "Love over Gold"-period ) is excellent, his voice in good shape. It was a very strong beginning to a solo-career that unfortunately did not work out too well and saw the big man battling against record-companies and bankruptcy, battling for his voice, battling private wars... logically, his creative output was to suffer from all those battles later on, but here, for once, he really proved that he was able to go it alone and succeed in "climbing the hill", setting a landmark he ( imo ) could not live up to anymore afterwards. Four stars "only" here cause, to make it sure, it's far more a singer/songwriter's effort than a "prog"-album, but this record is still a "must-have" for lovers of Marillion, very strong, very confident, highly recommended.