VIGIL IN A WILDERNESS OF MIRRORS

The first solo album from Fish might please most of the Fish-era Marillion fans. Some of the tunes here are reworked versions of Marillion demos from the Clutching At Straws-era, but the focus has shifted to the lyrics and vocals. The music suffers from it and follows common balladry song structures and rather bland instrumentation. There little room for the band to shine.

A long track like Vigil is at heart a basic verse-chorus pop song that is crammed inbetween a soft intro and outro. It's only because it has so many words that it ended up so long really, but it's an enjoyable tune nevertheless. The Big Wedge and State of Mind however are a certain proof that Fish can't have left Marillion for musical differences. This is material of the same pop level as Marillion was churning out back then. Also The Company and Gentleman's Excuse Me aren't much to get excited about, but for ballads, they are ok. Still, this is very old-school rock music with unimaginative arrangements that hasn't aged really well.

The second half of the album contains some more inspired moments. The lyrics-fuelled energy and conviction of Voyeur and Family Business compensates for the ordinary music. Cliché persuades me most of all, it's a sweeping ballad with some fair melodic guitar leads that builds up to quite a pathetic climax.

There are two reasons why I got me the first 3 Fish albums around 1995. The first being my hope that Fish would have carried on the Marillion flag more convincingly then Marrillion themselves, the second because I didn't know what else to buy... Yes, men can have a shopping compulsion as well! Both reasons proved to be very bad ones. The album is ok in its niche but nowhere near Marillion, if I would have come across this album now instead of 15 years ago, 2 stars would be my verdict.