Fish - Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors and Internal Exiles to be mixed in Atmos (4CD+BluRay Deluxe Sets Shipping July 29, 2024)

[JulesRules]

"Marbles," which was a POS to my ears.

OT but while there is a lot of grumbling about modern Marillion albums among fans, Marbles is usually held up as the high water mark of the post-EMI era.

 

[Shermatz]

Did you try his last two albums? They're excellent from a musical point of view

I gave up on Fish after "Internal Exile," maybe the next one after that. I concede that later albums might be good, but ESPECIALLY since the new releases are expensive imports, I'm frequently unwilling to risk a new purchase from an artist like Fish who was steering into ideological snarling.

 

[Shermatz]

OT but while there is a lot of grumbling about modern Marillion albums among fans, Marbles is usually held up as the high water mark of the post-EMI era.

Pointless to argue but "Marbles" was my exit point. They had several good Steve Hogarth albums, but after "Marbles," I couldn't have any confidence that I'd like what Marillion was producing was worth my $.
Again, anyone who likes Marillion "Marbles" or later isn't wrong. I'm just not hearing it.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Pointless to argue but "Marbles" was my exit point. They had several good Steve Hogarth albums, but after "Marbles," I couldn't have any confidence that I'd like what Marillion was producing was worth my $.
Again, anyone who likes Marillion "Marbles" or later isn't wrong. I'm just not hearing it.

I tried Marbles on the car system, cause it gets some hype and I’d never heard it. Wondered how excited I should be for Marbles in Atmos.
Not very excited…
Got so bored that I didn’t finish the album.

 

[minimumtumbleweed]

I tried Marbles on the car system, cause it gets some hype and I’d never heard it. Wondered how excited I should be for Marbles in Atmos.
Not very excited…
Got so bored that I didn’t finish the album.

Pointless to argue but "Marbles" was my exit point. They had several good Steve Hogarth albums, but after "Marbles," I couldn't have any confidence that I'd like what Marillion was producing was worth my $.
Again, anyone who likes Marillion "Marbles" or later isn't wrong. I'm just not hearing it.

I have a soft spot for Marbles. My unsolicited thoughts on Marillion's timeline:
Fish era -> mostly good, some great;
Season's End and Holidays in Eden ->some good but kind of 'growing pains';
Brave and Afraid of Sunlight -> spectacular in different ways;
This Strange Engine, Radiation, marillion.com, Anorkanophobia -> mostly radio nonsense with a few of their best songs in between somehow;
Marbles -> Excellent but long, and understandably a few songs not so great (but considering there are a lot of songs and most are really good);
Somewhere Else, Happiness is the Road, Sounds that Can't be Made -> my least favourite albums, hardly more than one or two decent songs between them;
FEAR -> Surprisingly good
An Hour before it's Dark -> OK, similar to FEAR but not as good

 

[minimumtumbleweed]

I have a soft spot for Marbles. My unsolicited thoughts on Marillion's timeline:
Fish era -> mostly good, some great;
Season's End and Holidays in Eden ->some good but kind of 'growing pains';
Brave and Afraid of Sunlight -> spectacular in different ways;
This Strange Engine, Radiation, marillion.com, Anorkanophobia -> mostly radio nonsense with a few of their best songs in between somehow;
Marbles -> Excellent but long, and understandably a few songs not so great (but considering there are a lot of songs and most are really good);
Somewhere Else, Happiness is the Road, Sounds that Can't be Made -> my least favourite albums, hardly more than one or two decent songs between them;
FEAR -> Surprisingly good
An Hour before it's Dark -> OK, similar to FEAR but not as good

Just replying to myself again, but Marillion are just this wonderfully unique band in the end of it all. They have plenty of terrible songs. And plenty of masterpieces. Really, there are other bands that do have better albums and songs. But they just have such an amazing track record of putting out music, engaging with fans, basically inventing crowdsourcing, running their Marillion weekends, etc.; for me whether their music is good or bad is almost inconsequential. They're just a band that I almost feel like I am friends with after 25 years of listening. I can't really say that about any other artist, personally.

 

[JulesRules]

I gave up on Fish after "Internal Exile," maybe the next one after that. I concede that later albums might be good, but ESPECIALLY since the new releases are expensive imports, I'm frequently unwilling to risk a new purchase from an artist like Fish who was steering into ideological snarling.

Well, at least he's done us a favour by making pretty much all the material from his CDs available on streaming, so it's possible to "try before you buy" (while you still can buy them...)

 

[madscot]

I tried Marbles on the car system, cause it gets some hype and I’d never heard it. Wondered how excited I should be for Marbles in Atmos.
Not very excited…
Got so bored that I didn’t finish the album.

The last song on Marbles is Neverland which has been voted the best Marillion song ever on numerous forums, you probably gave up before hearing it, it’s definitely worth a listen

 

[splinter7]

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned yet but Fish is seriously winding down / ending his musical career, and that includes ending the webstore.

Either way, once the tour is finished in March, the .scot store will apparently also be gone for good

Fish’s shop is set to close Thursday, March 6th EOD.

Stated by Fish himself, there will be no going out of business sale. As stock evaporates, it will be gone for good.

He has mostly gone silent between the end of part 1 of his farewell tour and the start of part two in February. He did stream a video chat last week where he reiterated the shutting down of his music career.

All his music and merch stuff is handled through his “chocolate frog records“ company that’s closing down officially on the day of his last performance - march 10th.

He hasn’t said anything about his music publishing arm, but all the remastered stuff streaming on the various platforms are licensed through “chocolate frog records”.

I wonder if most of his music will fall off the streamers once the current licensing deal expires. I’m fairly confident that he doesn’t outright own the rights to “vigil”, “ internal”, and “songs from the mirror” - so maybe it is just the non-remastered versions that remain available. I guess we’ll see.

He has hinted at doing some writing, both a biography and some fictional stories. Will have to wait and see how he promotes those.

And I don’t care what anybody says -“Marbles” is brilliant!!!!!!!

 

[JoshBasswood]

Fish has always been very impulsive. Apparently, at the moment he feels that he needs to burn all ships behind him. I can imagine that running a cottage industry from his new remote location is just not possible. And that as such he is simply letting it all go for now.
I cannot believe for a moment though that he will pass on a future change to capitalise on his music. We will have to wait and see.

 

[Shermatz]

Well, at least he's done us a favour by making pretty much all the material from his CDs available on streaming, so it's possible to "try before you buy" (while you still can buy them...)

I'm just a 100% physical media consumer, I won't do I-Tunes, Spotify or any other platform. Mostly just because I don't want to fiddle around with more GUI's & meddling algorithms, PLUS I want my favorite artists to get a proper royalty.

I hasten to add again that I'm NOT here torching "Fish-Heads" or late Marillion loyalists. I do realize that artists HAVE to try different things over years & decades, and that many of my favorite bands/albums required several listens before they bloomed for me. It is possible that some of their newer releases COULD grow on me given dedicated listening. OTOH, I guess I've just got less tolerance for guys like Marillion & Fish who I maybe had unrealistically high expectations for. I certainly couldn't kick in $100+ for an exotic 5.1 re-release of one of these late-career Fish releases, though I DO see its appeal.

 

[Shermatz]

I gave up on Fish after "Internal Exile," maybe the next one after that. I concede that later albums might be good, but ESPECIALLY since the new releases are expensive imports, I'm frequently unwilling to risk a new purchase from an artist like Fish who was steering into ideological snarling.

I think "Sunsets on Empires" was my last Fish CD. Meh...

 

[JulesRules]

He hasn’t said anything about his music publishing arm, but all the remastered stuff streaming on the various platforms are licensed through “chocolate frog records”.

I wonder if most of his music will fall off the streamers once the current licensing deal expires. I’m fairly confident that he doesn’t outright own the rights to “vigil”, “ internal”, and “songs from the mirror” - so maybe it is just the non-remastered versions that remain available. I guess we’ll see.

That is actually a very important question. Could anyone get that through to him so it gets addressed? Because while they're obviously no substitute for the physical packages with his long liner notes and reimagined Mark Wilkinson artwork, I'd even settle for buying downloads of the 3CD sets if they're otherwise becoming completely unavailable, even digitally.

Again, as with the closing of the EU shop, I wish all this was communicated a bit more widely. I follow a couple of Marillion and Fish threads on at least three different websites, and I'm on a Discord server about Marillion, and yet I only found out after it was already gone.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Again, as with the closing of the EU shop, I wish all this was communicated a bit more widely. I follow a couple of Marillion and Fish threads on at least three different websites, and I'm on a Discord server about Marillion, and yet I only found out after it was already gone.

Its been mentioned for quite a while on his Fish on Friday webcasts.

 

[JulesRules]

Its been mentioned for quite a while on his Fish on Friday webcasts.

Exactly. I can't follow podcasts and so on. I've tried it with some others at the beginning of the pandemic and it's just not my format. And I doubt a lot of casual fans watch them.

 

[progtodd]

I tried Marbles on the car system, cause it gets some hype and I’d never heard it. Wondered how excited I should be for Marbles in Atmos.
Not very excited…
Got so bored that I didn’t finish the album..

The last song on Marbles is Neverland which has been voted the best Marillion song ever on numerous forums, you probably gave up before hearing it, it’s definitely worth a listen

I tried Marbles on the car system, cause it gets some hype and I’d never heard it. Wondered how excited I should be for Marbles in Atmos.
Not very excited…
Got so bored that I didn’t finish the album.

You may appreciate marbles more if you read the lyrics while listening... if you don't appreciate the opening track, invisible man, after listening with the lyrics, then I'll say you won't like the rest of the album.....

 

[RuudMans]

I think "Sunsets on Empires" was my last Fish CD. Meh...

Ditto.

 

[JoshBasswood]

You may appreciate marbles more if you read the lyrics while listening... if you don't appreciate the opening track, invisible man, after listening with the lyrics, then I'll say you won't like the rest of the album.....

It took me a long time to get into The Invisible Man, while I immediately adored some of the other stuff on Marbles.
At the end of the day it *is* a hit and miss album though. The short interludes (Marbles I-IV) don't add much. Especially disc 2 does not sit that well with me. I actually only like Angelina and Neverland from Disc 2 and genuinely dislike You're Gone and Don't Hurt Yourself.
Fantastic Place, Genie, The Only Unforgivable Thing, Ocean Cloud and Neverland are sheer classics, IMHO.

Neverland should really be experienced live though. That BIG guitarsound and H's soaring vocals really rip your gut to pieces. My go-to version is this one on the "Somewhere in London" live DVD (it even has surround sound ). Unfortunately the accompanying live album is no longer up on streaming sites.

 

[JoshBasswood]

Ditto.

And to think that 'Prog God' Steven Wilson had quite a hand in that one!

 

[LuvMyQuad]

And to think that 'Prog God' Steven Wilson had quite a hand in that one!

Neither Fish nor Wilson really seem happy with the album though.