A FEAST OF CONSEQUENCES

On this new release Fish displays a broad palette of musical styles while throughout showing his extraordinary skill as singer-storyteller. What I find myself liking throughout is how Fish's singing has strongly carried a torch started by Peter Gabriel. In fact, he may be better now than Gabriel ever was. The album has a lot of the same feel as Gabe's first solo album. My beef with this album is that there is a lot of music here that really wouldn't fall into a prog category, more like classic rock. I count four songs that are proggy (5, 8, 9, 11), three that are pseudo-proggy (1, 6, 7) and four that are not proggy at all (2, 3, 4, 10), and no real standout masterpieces, IMHO. Also, Fish seems pretty stuck on two themes in particular: environmental disaster and war, though his lyrical compositions are incredibly poetic. As a matter of fact, that is another feature that distinguishes Fish's music from almost all others on PA this year: the mature, sophisticated poetic quality of his words, delivery and images is so far beyond anyone else (at least those speaking in English, my most familiar language).

01. "Perfume River" (10:58) is notable for its three parts, beginning with bagpipes, some wonderful singing, and an energetic strumming acoustic guitar-driven section in the second half. (8/10)

02. "All Loved Up" (5:07) sounds like a TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS or JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP song, pure rural bluesy rock. (6/10)

03. "Blind To The Beautiful" (5:12) continues the MELLENCAMP/TOM PETTY trend on the softer end of the spectrum. A beautiful, heartfelt vocal performance. (7/10)

04. "A Feast Of Consequences" (4:29) is the third and probably most obvious of the MELLENCAMP/TOM PETTY genre. The female and background vocal supports are nice touches but fail to make this song a winner for me. (5/10)

05. "High Wood" (5:26) starts out as a sensitive, beautiful IAMTHEMORNING-like song up to the 2:10 mark when it kicks into PETER GABRIEL sound and style. It's eery-powerful in the chorus section, especially "the circle is unbroken." Like the use of spoken German at the end. Definitely one of the three best songs on the album. (9/10)

06. "Crucifix Corner" (7:25) opens very delicately with another stunning vocal performance. Again it kicks into drive with its 80s classic rock B and C parts. (7/10)

07. "The Gathering" (4:30) opens with a festive county fair sound and feel to it before turning into a kind of Celtic folk anti-war song. I hear a lot of ROBERT WYATT in this song-- especially in the way the horns are used. Also some J TULL. Unfortunately, this song has probably the least effective vocal on the album. (7/10)

08. "Thistle Alley" (6:08) sounds just like it came off of PETER GABRIEL's first solo album. Great delicacy in the instrumental play is offset with the raw and powerful insistence of the vocal performance. Great effect of the drums and bass with sparse guitar interplay. Another of the three best songs on the album. (9/10)

09. "The Leaving" (4:59). By the time you get to this song you start to realize that Fish is using one formula in the construction of his songs on this album: delicate, soft two-minute sparsely intstrumentalized intros shifting into a more standard pulsing rock formats for the remainder of the song (with sometimes a return to the delicacy of the intro for the final 15 or 30 seconds). An interesting guitar solo in the fourth minute. Another familiar PETER GABRIEL-like song and vocal in this one. The use of chamber strings is a highlight of this one for me. (8/10)

10. "The Other Side Of Me" (6:09) opens with some very familiar GENESIS-like guitar and piano. Deep, breathy-voiced Fish soon joins in with what I feel is the most powerful lyric and vocal performance on the album. I love the effect of the double-lined vocal from the 1:50 mark on and the excellent background voices in the "First person singular" chorus. The rise an octave at the 2:50 mark is also masterfully effective. Unfortunately, this is not a prog song but more of a country rock piece, again in the form used so effectively by JOHN MELLENCAMP, ROBBIE ROBERTSON, GUY MANNING and VAN MORRISON. (8/10)

11. "The Great Unravelling (6:32) begins with the riff from EMINEM's well-known "Lose Yourself" song. The riff is soon joined by a great and varied PETER GABRIEL-esque vocal performance. Another awesome lyric. Also great use of female vocalist (whom I assume to be Liz Antwi) as a foil/partner and CLARE TORREY-like vocal "instrument." Great instrumental performances throughout. This is the last of the three good truly prog songs on the album. (9/10)

A 3.5 star album, really, that is probably best defined by the "Good, but not essential" category but I am awarding four stars due to the outstanding vocal and poetic lyrics.