CLUTCHING AT STRAWS

"Clutching at Straws" comes along as probably the most complete, cohesive and solid effort from the Fish era. In this record we can find almost everything that made this musical stage a highly enjoyable one. We have melancholy and lyric beauty, like in "Misplaced Childhood" but also we can find passages of reckoning energy, like in the two first albums, and sometimes this two tendencies are even mixed in individual songs (like "Hotel Hobbies" or "That time of the night"). And like it happened in its predecessor, Fish seems to have a vocal balance here as well.

"Hotel Hobbies" starts in a low and gentle way and after some moments, Steve Rothery comes into action to provide us with an excellent rocker. "Warm Wet Circle" is one of the melancholic and mellow pieces of the album. "That time of the night" repeats the pattern of "Hotel Hobbies", being probably one the strongest songs found here. "Going under", another melancholic, is filled with a excellent and subtle guitar riff and with a rich and romantic atmosphere. "Just for record" is a more synth-based song, with some loops trademark of Mark Kelly. "White Russian" is a highly narrative composition filled with a rhytmic pattern of piano and Rothery's mellow guitar work. "Incommunicado" is by far the most hyper and energetic song from the record, and probably from most of the Fish musical stage. Quite enjoyable. "Torch Song" is another romantic ballad which shows how Fish had developed very good manners performing this kind of songs. "Slainte Mhath" shows us another excellent guitar riff and again the atmospheric textures found previously on the album are present here and to put an appropiate end to the song, Rothery and Fish make another of their numerous and memorable tandems of guitar and vocals. "Sugar Mice" is a slightly weak song, again filled with melancholic touches. "The Last Straw" is an appropiate Summary for the record, and a good farewell for it and Fish after all. It has again strong female backing vocals, like in "The Short Straw".

Then, all of those who liked and enjoyed early Marillion's albums should have this one as well, since it is probably the most artistic and well structured of them.