VIGIL IN A WILDERNESS OF MIRRORS

Vigil in A Wilderness of Mirrors is the debut album by former Marillion vocalist Fish. Fish and Marillion parted ways in 1988 after making four of my personal favorite albums. EMI had the rights to Fish solo recordings because of a leaving members clause but Vigil in A Wilderness of Mirrors would be the only album Fish released on EMI as he would leave the label after a lengthy legal dispute in 1991. Most songs on the album are co-written by keyboard player Mickey Simmonds ( who would also tour with Fish on the following tour for the album), but Janick Gers ( Iron Maiden) and Hal Lindes ( Dire Straits) would also contribute to the writing of a few songs on the album.

The music ranges from slightly progressive rock and ballads to pop/ rock. My favorites on the album are the opening title track which is probably the song on the album which sounds mostly like Fish-era Marillion and the heavily orchestrated A Gentleman's Excuse Me. The Company and Family Business also comes of as sounding quite succesful to my ears. The rest is rather forgettable though and not really something that impresses me. Big Wedge with its brass arrangement and female backing choir even annoys me a bit. Most of the songs are lacking in the instrumental department though and that also counts for the better songs on the album. This album is clearly a solo album by a vocalist. Fish shines as ever and his lyrics are as usual of high quality but I wish he would have concentrated more on making interesting music as well.

The musicianship is good, but the performance of the musicians come of as a bit anonymous simply because the song arrangements are too generic. The performance needs bite and it´s really only Fish who sounds like he means it.

The production is good, but again there´s too much emphasis on the vocals and too little emphasis on the music as a whole.

It´s safe to say that I had big expectations to both Fish solo albums and Marillion´s post-Fish ditto. None of them have delivered what I would call better than average rock albums since they parted ways and I must admit to be one of those who cry myself asleep every night because of the split. Fish-era Marillion simply had a wonderful magic that neither the band nor Fish have been able to create since. Vigil in A Wilderness of Mirrors is overall a pretty good album from the singer though and deserves a 3 star rating.