Listening to Fish: Sunsets On Empire, Part 3

[@katierootham]

The whole album, is just gorgeous. Can't say no more!

[@majnun3]

The title track has always reminded me of something that would fit easily onto Pink Floyd's The Final Cut..

[@g0liver]

LIstening to Peter Gabriel I/O and have been a Fish fan since '95 .. the song compositions remind me so much of Fish .. We listened to bits of Sunsets up in the Studio in Haddington (Fish's current home) at the Convention. Tickets booked for Wroclaw ..

[@adamwells5160]

What an absolute banger Brother 52 is

[@JimNewstead]

Yes it is!

[@theturtleproject]

yeah awesome tune, dark story behind it but put together so well

[@lazarus550]

I really like your reactions to this album. I first saw him in 1997 in Glasgow the night Borussia Dortmnd beat Juvemtus and won the European Cup. A great night played 4 tracks from this mighty fine album.Your Porcupine Tree influence thoughts are right and would be on later albums.

[@rudolfbecker4313]

Brother 52 is so different but so great, the music is so ... I don't know, love the bassline, the sound of organ and guitar 😆 the title track is the next great one ...followed by a quiet ending. I want to pick up your words, when you said yesterday that back in the good old days the radio stations and their DJs were the tastemakers. What is radio today ? Public radio in Germany is awful, computer created playlists are "consumed" by listeners, which just "consume", but don't really listen. Many listen to have some sound in their ears but not for the music and if you ask them, what they listen to, they simply have no idea. But even stations, which try to satisfy a certain clientel, are boring when they play for the 1000th time Herrn Hänli and his vultures singing about some Motel Florida 🤣🤣 (I know .. attentive listeners might have heard this from me before). Good luck we nowadays have Jim and other reactors as our tastemakers : they react to the music of their subscribers and as many of us know great music, which can only be spread this way it's a win-win situation for all of us ... I think I'll sell my radio 🤣🤣🤘

[@TheFilwud]

One of Fish's best albums, I still remember going to see him in concert in Glasgow before I heard the album, he opened with Johnny Punter, I hadn't heard the track and was absolutely blown away, I listen to this album a lot, still! This album, Raingods, Vigil and Wels, Wellsch, We, that last One I can't spell, they are the standout albums for me. Oh and Clutching from the Marillion era. Great review by the way!

[@theturtleproject]

the title track is such a powerful emotional track, love it

[@palantir135]

Hi Jim, I said it all already. Hope to hear more of him soon 😊 Great thoughts about Fish and Steve Wilson. Both are geniuses.

[@delorangeade]

I doubt if I will be diving deeply into Fish's post Marillion career too deeply, but on the basis of dipping my toe into this I've clearly underestimated what he was capable of. As far as I know Fish does not write music, so he is largely dependent on his collaborators for the musical direction he takes. On that basis, Steven Wilson, with whose work I'm only vaguely familiar, deserves a lot of credit. A quick check tells me that Marillion released This Strange Engine the same year as this was released, and the two albums sound poles apart. That was an album I did buy and enjoy. This one I probably should have done.

[@jpwwilson430]

Thanks for reviewing this album Jim and I'm glad you enjoyed it. The musicians that played on this album, Ewan Vernal (Deacon Blue) bass, Frank Usher, Steven Wilson & Robin Boult guitar, Foss Patterson Keyboard and drums Dave Stewart where all outstanding. I Remember being at a Fish gig with Wilson playing the guitar on the track "Sunsets on empire" it was an amazing experience.

[@lilaelsi5766]

“Say It With Flowers” is a Fishy version of no-man’s “All That You Are”, thus Tim Bowness is also credited as a songwriter.

[@threestringsomg]

Title track sounds like Fish in likable Bruce Springsteen mode.....☺️....yeah could've been Slash on the mountain at the end there but a nice slanted landing instead was good.

[@kenl2091]

Great album and well worth the four Brit awards that it won. What? It wasn't even nominated?? Typical. A proper rock band will never win a best group/album/artist/single Brit award again and even in the 'Rock/Alternative' category this year we have Blur and the Rolling Stones (still pretty good but their best years are long behind them) Bring Me the Horizon (not my faves but genuine contemporary rock) Young Fathers (not my faves but genuine contemporary 'alternative') and Yussef Dayes (pause while you Google him. Me neither. Jazz apparently) Rant over. This was really, really good. Feel free to have some more Fish whenever you like.

[@carstenhorn5075]

You're misunderstanding something. The Brit Awards and similar events do not focus on musical quality!

[@The_Enzo]

The title track is very Roger Waters.

[@vladimirvelikov8115]

Sorry for the offtopic but Jim, would love to see your reaction to Caligula's Horse's new album - Charcoal Grace. Strong AOTY contender, even if this early.

[@JimNewstead]

Waiting for my copy to arrive! I’ve had an email from InsideOutMusic saying it’s on its way…..

[@vladimirvelikov8115]

@@JimNewstead That's great news! You are one of my favourite reactors. Hope you will enjoy as much as I did. And I still need more listens to appreciate it fully but I can already say it is a phenomenal album/masterpiece.

[@JimNewstead]

Arrived today! Not sure when I’ll get to listen, but hopefully soon.

[@vladimirvelikov8115]

@@JimNewstead Wonderful! Enjoy! Would you do reaction to the album?

[@JimNewstead]

@@vladimirvelikov8115 of course!

[@quillishwhammy3686]

Brother 52. Not for nothing, but if "Doc" were alive today, he'd be a Trump supporter. I love Fish (and this tune), but in the 26 years since it's been released, we've had Columbine, Newtown, Uvalde and the Bataclan massacres (to name a few). I can't get behind the message of a song supporting "gun freedom" and whack job right-wing militias. Lyrically it hasn't aged well.