Fish: Raingods With Zippos (3CD expanded remaster)

Two years after the stunning Sunsets On Empire and Fish was back with the enigmatically titled Raingods With Zippos. Gone from the writing team was Steven Wilson, although the Porcupine Tree man still played a large part on this album. In his place Fish teamed up with a variety of song writers to provide an engaging, if slightly less cohesive collection. Also included was a cover version of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band's "Faith Healer", a song I remember being enthralled by when Fish performed it on his first full solo tour – it's omission from the covers album Songs From The Mirror (also soon to be reissued), a disappointment, so its inclusion here proved a boon. This version featuring Robin Boult and Steven Wilson trading licks wildly, as the discordant violin from Davey Crichton builds the tension. Wilson also provides guitars on the opening "Tumbledown", a song where beautiful piano sets the scene before jagged (possibly too jagged) keyboards begin the song proper. As an album opening it was a bold, colourful statement and also a stark contrast to the threatening world previous album Sunsets… had revealed. However with the atmospheric sweep of "Rites Of Passage" adding poignancy and the bouncing "Mission Statement" (Bruce Watson of Big Country giving extra oomph to Boult's excellent guitar skills) adding darting dollops of energy, Raingods certainly knows how to offer up a variety of musical ideas to get its message across.

"Incomplete" is another in the list of wonderful male-female voiced duets Fish has thrived through over the years, the big Scot never afraid to match himself against technically superior vocalists in order to ensure he delivers a performance right at the peak of his powers. This time Elizabeth Antwi is his foyle (she co-wrote the song) and both he and she are absolutely wonderful on a stunningly arranged, string laden joy. "Tilted Cross" on the other hand utilises acoustic guitar and violin to counterpoint in glorious style, Nicola King adding sublime backing vocals. However strong though the whole album is, arguably it revolves round the six part "Plague Of Ghosts", a meandering, but never wandering journey through a host of styles and attacks beautifully brought together by keyboard player Tony Turrell and "programmer" Mark Daghorn, as Fish weaves his lyrical magic. It's, even all these years down the line, a hell of ride and a prime example of patience and poise triumphing over bombast and impetuousness to deliver the album's most involved and diverse piece.

The first bonus disc also revolves entirely round "Plague...", three versions assembled for comparison. A live in the studio instrumental pre-production comes first, the basis of the song's heart well under construction and hitting hard in unexpected ways without the vocals snagging the attention. Next up is 'Tony Turrell's instrumental demo containing sections that became "Plague Of Ghosts"' and I have to say that the early concoctions are quite spellbinding. Closing the disc is a live 1999 version (from Sashimi, one of the many official bootlegs Fish has put out over the years), where the beauty and majesty of the songs is displayed for all to hear, John Wesley (solo and Porcupine Tree sideman) handling the guitars superbly.

From the outside, a second live version of the same piece, running to nearly 35 minutes closing out disc three, may seem like overkill, but with Fish introducing the song (originally from the Candlelight In Fog official bootleg) as a dedication to his one time drummer Kevin Wilkinson, who had recently taken his own life, the raw emotion which sees Fish struggle in the quieter sections is a genuinely moving experience. Impressively, all five (one final studio, two live and two demo) versions are distinctly different from each other and rather than causing disc two to be somewhat throwaway, it actually verges on being the best in this set. The rest of the third disc is made up of live acoustic takes of "Tilted Cross", "Incomplete" and "Rites Of Passage", which come from the excellent 2006 Communion album, a full live band take on "Tumbledown" (again featuring Wesley), alongside a wonderful demo take of "Incomplete" and the bonus cuts from the Kettle Of Fish compilation, "Mr. Buttons" and "Chasing Miss Pretty", which both deserve another airing.

As with all of the albums in this reissue campaign, the three discs come housed in a beautiful hardback 48 page book, featuring stunning artwork and images. Add in detailed, scene setting, sleeve notes from Fish himself and it's impossible to find any reason not to fully recommend this version of an excellent album, and so much more.

Track Listing
CD1
1. Tumbledown
2. Mission Statement
3. Incomplete
4. Tilted Cross
5. Faith Healer
6. Rites Of Passage
7. Plague Of Ghosts
CD2
1. Plague Of Ghosts (Live studio instrumental)
2. All These Christs (Tony Turrell instrumental demo)
3. Plague Of Ghosts (from Sashimi live in Poznan, Poland 1999)
CD3
1. Incomplete (Acoustic demo with Elisabeth Troy 1998)
2. Chasing Miss Pretty (studio version from Kettle Of Fish compilation)
3. Mr Buttons (studio version from Kettle of Fish compilation)
4. Tilted Cross (Acoustic version from Communion 2006)
5. Incomplete (Acoustic version from Communion 2006)
6. Rites Of Passage (Acoustic version from Communion 2006)
7. Tumbledown (From Candlelight In Fog USA 2000)
8. Plague Pf Ghosts (From Candlelight In Fog 2000)

Added: December 6th 2015
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Fishheads Club
Hits: 4282
Language: english

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