CLUTCHING AT STRAWS

After this album, there wasn`t a real reason to keep Fish as a member in Marillion. This album has the most personal lyrics that Fish wrote for them, and because he wanted more and more to be himself, his lifestyle really caused problems with the rest of the members of the band. The "concept" of this album is about a "tormented artist" who is having problems with substances and who is in a personal crisis about what he is going to do in the future. In the case of Fish, as he explained in Marillion`s official website, in the "Bios" section, he was tired of touring, he wanted to have a more "quiet" life, he had some problems with substance abuse, and he wanted to spend more time with his new wife, as he didn`t want to spoil his love relationship as he did in the past because he was so concentrated in his musical career. Also, he started to have some political ideas, and his ideas were not shared by the band. So, in my opinion, this album is Fish`s statement about changes in his life that he needed at the time and that he did when he left the band. They still toured for this album, but there were a lot of problems in the band as Fish wanted to change the manager of the band, too, against the wishes of the rest of the members of the band. So, this is a "dark" album, but with very good "atmospheres" by Rothery and Kelly, and some very good songs. My favourite songs from this album are:"Incommunicado", "Sugar Mice", "White Russian", "Torch Song" and "Going Under" (this last song wasn`t released in the L.P., but it was included as a bonus track in the CD). After this album and the tour for this album, they started to compose some new music, with Fish still in the band and writing lyrics. But it didn`t work, and Fish left the band. The music of some of these songs with Fish was used for the new songs for the "Seasons End" album. Fish also used his lyrics for these songs for his new songs for his first solo album, which was released in 1990.