Fish

Raingods with Zippos

How far the mighty have fallen

Review Score:

(4/10)
When Fish broke with Marillion after their excellent Clutching At Straws album, it heralded the beginning of the end for both artists. With his first two albums, Fish mixed a fling with pop stardom with exploring being a balladeer. Since then, though, his hooks have become less catchy, his songs less tight, and his albums less meaningful or enjoyable.

Raingods with Zippos seemingly completes the descent: "Tumbledown" has a vague infectiousness, but the light arrangement seems rather silly. "Raingod's Dancing" has some impressive power in Fish's vocals, but doesn't go anywhere once you sit up and take notice. Most of the album is either unremarkable, or (as with "Faith Healer") feels disastrously heavy-handed.

At this point, it seems clear that Fish's strength was to take the churning miasma of musical talent in Marillion and forge it into an album of coherent melodies with clever lyrics. (You can clearly see this evolution on Marillion's first four albums.) But as a frontman, it seems that Fish either pursues writing cloying little ditties, or tries to match Marillion's musical chops, to similarly scattershot effects. I don't know whether it's because his backing band just isn't at Marillion's level, or because Fish needs someone else to push the hot licks while he molds it into a workable melody. In any event, the end result here is listenable, but not especially memorable.

The worst of it is, there aren't even any little glimpses of Marillion at their height here. Sadly, those days are now completely past.

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