My first Fish solo album and it is wonderful. I will have to spin it a bit more before rating it but I am leaning toward 9/10 depending on how it sounds when my wife goes to bed.
HiRez Poll Fish - WELTSCHMERZ [Blu-Ray Audio]
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Its the best lyric writing I've seen in years. The great sonics and mix is the icing on the cake. I've got a few more of his other releases coming (stereo). If they are even near this good, I'm gonna be kicking myself for not knowing about him earlier. The videos are pretty nice as well. My fave tracks so far are This Party's Over. and For the Grace of God. The latter just hits hard for an old cancer survivor like me. Unless something really good shows up between now and January, this has my vote for surround release of the year.
Ok. I'm officially kicking myself. I ordered A Feast of Consequences and Raingods With Zippos from Fish's website. I received the order from across the pond in less than 2 weeks. Feast is every bit as good as Weltschmerz, maybe better. Raingods is also good, but not quite to the level of the other two IMHO. No surround mix on either, but pretty good sonics for CDs. Raingods came as a deluxe remaster version. It has very similar packaging to that of Weltschmerz, only CD sized instead of a rectangular book. Now I want 13th Star and Vigil. All of this is highly recommended. I turned a guy at work onto the three albums mentioned. He is as flabbergasted as I am that this material doesn't have a wider audience.
For those of you owning the Blu-ray, please watch Garden of Remembrance video and right afterwards the short docu about how it was made. It's a rollercoaster of emotions and a very surprising made of.
In Fish's facebook show "Fish on Friday" a couple of weeks ago he mentioned that it was a complete error that Andy and Avril's surround mix wasn't actually mentioned in the credits. He said he feels really bad that this oversight got passed him and the other proof readers, and wasn't actually noticed until it was too late.
My collection became a little fishier today!
I ordered a little over a week ago. I got a shipping notification only a couple of hours after I put in the order, which may have been the fastest service I've ever experienced--so, a big thank you to Fish' staff!
(Oddly, the tracking history tells me the item got shipped to San Francisco, then to Miami, then back to San Francisco. USPS moved in mysterious ways! Still, 9 days of international shipping from Scotland to the SF Bay Area in the times of COVID, that's pretty fast.)
But yeah, I completely agree with everyone above that this is really great. Great album, beautiful surround mix, gorgeous book, all very well done. If this is indeed his last one it's a great farewell.
I have to confess I'm not a great connoisseur of his solo albums. I was a fan of Marillion as well as his first solo album "Vigil in a wilderness of mirrors" when I was a teenager, but the next couple of albums didn't really do it for me, and I kind of lost track of him. I'll use some of the above suggestions to catch up with his other stuff.
I ordered a little over a week ago. I got a shipping notification only a couple of hours after I put in the order, which may have been the fastest service I've ever experienced--so, a big thank you to Fish' staff!
(Oddly, the tracking history tells me the item got shipped to San Francisco, then to Miami, then back to San Francisco. USPS moved in mysterious ways! Still, 9 days of international shipping from Scotland to the SF Bay Area in the times of COVID, that's pretty fast.)
But yeah, I completely agree with everyone above that this is really great. Great album, beautiful surround mix, gorgeous book, all very well done. If this is indeed his last one it's a great farewell.
I have to confess I'm not a great connoisseur of his solo albums. I was a fan of Marillion as well as his first solo album "Vigil in a wilderness of mirrors" when I was a teenager, but the next couple of albums didn't really do it for me, and I kind of lost track of him. I'll use some of the above suggestions to catch up with his other stuff.
Surrounds gotta be cranked for my ears but...first listen...easily the best Prog I've heard in a while 
Videos are exceptional!
Videos are exceptional!
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Yes. Man with a Stick is one of the best pieces of new music ive heard in a long time. The video for it is a great addition. This Party's Over gets honorable mention.Surrounds gotta be cranked for my ears but...first listen...easily the best Prog I've heard in a while
Videos are exceptional!
Joining the "9" crowd. Not much else I can add to the thread regarding the music itself--incredible lyrics, catchy melodies, and Fish's voice is in surprisingly good form. I agree with @edisonbaggins' comment that you can really hear the weariness and emotion in the center-channel isolated vocals. My favorite tracks are "Man With A Stick", "Walking On Eggshells", and "C Song".
As others have said, the 5.1 mix is miles ahead of Bradfield & Mackintosh's work on Clutching and Script. The rears are used really well in every track, typically for isolated backing vocals, rhythm guitars, percussion, and brass. There are even some fun motion effects, like the keyboard solos in "Man With A Stick" swirling back-and-forth between the center and rear speakers. "Garden Of Remembrance" sounds gorgeous with the piano upfront and acoustic guitars isolated in the rears. Loud guitar fills come blasting from the left rear speaker during the tempo change in "Little Man What Now".
As much as I enjoyed the 5.1, there were still a few moments that felt like missed opportunities. For instance--about halfway through "Rose Of Damascus", there's a female backing vocal that alternates between the front speakers. How cool would it have been if that went all the way around the room? In "Grace Of God", the backing vocalists singing "vampires in the shadows" appear in the front speakers rather than the rears. There are spots here and there where the rears basically drop out of the mix (save for some reverb), but there's usually a burst of percussion or backing vocals that bring them back into play not long after.
I'm actually a little disappointed in the overall sound quality. On my system, the 5.1 seems a touch too bright--the cymbal crashes in the busier passages are rather piercing--and lacking in low-end. The quieter passages (particularly "Garden Of Remembrance") sound amazing, but the louder parts come off as kind of 'mushy' and fatiguing at higher volumes. Though this has been mastered at a relatively low level, the waveforms do exhibit that 'haircut' look--suggesting that some degree of dynamic range compression has been applied.
Thanks @GOS for letting your extra copy go!
As others have said, the 5.1 mix is miles ahead of Bradfield & Mackintosh's work on Clutching and Script. The rears are used really well in every track, typically for isolated backing vocals, rhythm guitars, percussion, and brass. There are even some fun motion effects, like the keyboard solos in "Man With A Stick" swirling back-and-forth between the center and rear speakers. "Garden Of Remembrance" sounds gorgeous with the piano upfront and acoustic guitars isolated in the rears. Loud guitar fills come blasting from the left rear speaker during the tempo change in "Little Man What Now".
As much as I enjoyed the 5.1, there were still a few moments that felt like missed opportunities. For instance--about halfway through "Rose Of Damascus", there's a female backing vocal that alternates between the front speakers. How cool would it have been if that went all the way around the room? In "Grace Of God", the backing vocalists singing "vampires in the shadows" appear in the front speakers rather than the rears. There are spots here and there where the rears basically drop out of the mix (save for some reverb), but there's usually a burst of percussion or backing vocals that bring them back into play not long after.
I'm actually a little disappointed in the overall sound quality. On my system, the 5.1 seems a touch too bright--the cymbal crashes in the busier passages are rather piercing--and lacking in low-end. The quieter passages (particularly "Garden Of Remembrance") sound amazing, but the louder parts come off as kind of 'mushy' and fatiguing at higher volumes. Though this has been mastered at a relatively low level, the waveforms do exhibit that 'haircut' look--suggesting that some degree of dynamic range compression has been applied.
Thanks @GOS for letting your extra copy go!
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