Member:
Epilepticgibbon
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by Epilepticgibbon)
Date:
2/28/2006
Format:
CD (Album)
Strangefish have been around in one form or another since 1989 but I only really became aware of them a few years back, not long after the release of their debut album, Full Scale, and their impressive showing at the U. K. Classic Rock Society's 2003 Awards.
I've never actually heard that first album, though I did hear a few tracks from it and I'll admit that I was impressed enough to check them out further, but somehow just never got around to it. I suppose I was waiting for the next album to turn up and it never did. Well, three years later, the second album has finally arrived and this time I'm right in there because the band kindly sent me a copy for reviewing purposes.
Why so long between the two albums? Well, this album, like the first one, is self-financed, there's no big record label behind them – in fact there's no record label at all – and Strangefish is really just what the band members do when they're not doing their day jobs. Under the circumstances I think we can cut them a little slack.
And what of the album itself? Well, from most of what I'd heard about them, I was expecting Strangefish to be a rather straightforward neo-prog band, the latest in a lineage that started with Genesis, moving via Marillion and IQ, through to It Bites and Big Big Train. And, to be fair, and I'm sure they won't be insulted by me writing this, there are hints and elements of many of those groups on display on this album.
But what was more of a pleasant surprise to me were the elements that didn't fit quite so easily into the neo-prog mold. I'm not saying that this is the freshest or most experimental album you'll hear in 2006, but Fortune Telling does contain a really spacey hard rocking track (“Have You Seen The Light?”), an all instrumental jig (“Lighthouse Jig”), and there's a fair bit of variety in tone, mood and tempo throughout the rest of the album too, with inventive twists and turns scattered around.
The album does have the dreaded 'c' word attached to it. Yes, it's a concept album and you might well tremble in fear as in recent years many contemporary and otherwise quite sane prog groups (e.g. Spock's Beard, Dream Theatre, and Big Big Train) have produced less than inspiring examples of this type of album. Fortunately Strangefish have not overstretched themselves – they've wisely not gone for a double album and the story/concept works well musically without being stretched or overstaying its welcome.
The story is about a man without materialistic tendencies who ends up in a coma and sees what his life might be like if he had wealth, fame and all their trappings, but then wakes up from the coma when he again rejects the life he's being sold by the media and consumerist society. It could be pretentious but it's actually a refreshing message that's thankfully never rammed down your throat.
Overall I'd have to say that I'm impressed with the album. It may well be neo-prog and there are many moments when you hear something that you think you've heard before from one of the bands that I mentioned above, but there's nothing wrong with wearing your influences proudly on your musical sleeves, particularly when Strangefish clearly have the musical chops, the melodic flair and an occasional willingness to push at their own neo-prog boundaries, branching out into unexpected areas in the process. This is neo-prog but it's an impressive example of the sub-genre and better than recent albums by many of the bands that Strangefish probably count as influences.
Best tracks: “Happy As I Am”, “Random”, “Keep The Exits Clear”, “Have You Seen The Light?”, “Lighthouse Jig”.
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