FORTUNE TELLING

"Fortune Telling" is the second full-length studio album by UK progressive rock act Strangefish. The album was independently released in 2006. It´s the successor to the 2003 debut full-length studio album "Full Scale". There have been no lineup changes since the debut album and therefore Strangefish operate in the same quintet lineup as they did on the first album. That includes powerhouse singer Steve Taylor.

Taylor is quite the impressive vocalist, singing both powerful and raw rock/hard rock parts and more melodic and subtle progressive rock vocals. He is definitely one of the greatest assets of Strangefish' music. The remaining part of the band are skilled and well playing too and you can´t say much negative about the musicianship on "Fortune Telling".

Stylistically the material on "Fortune Telling" is in the more diverse and adventurous end of the neo-progressive rock scale. While 80s neo-progressive leaders like Marillion and IQ are still influences here, Strangefish also include influences from a lot of other music genres. Particularly from rock- and hard rock artists like Deep Purple and Uriah Heep. Late 70s Genesis is of course also an influence. If I have to compare Strangefish to a contemporary artist it would be Big Big Train, but that´s when Strangefish perform their most progressive rock oriented parts (a track like "It Could Be Me" is a good example of that).

To my ears "Fortune Telling" features a better sounding production than "Full Scale" and it´s obvious too that Strangefish have honed their songwriting skills since the first album. It´s not like they invent the wheel or that they produce anything you haven´t heard before, but they do what they do very well and "Fortune Telling" is definitely a good quality progressive rock release. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.