Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Marillion
Label: EMI Records
Released: 1987
Rating: 5/5
After the huge success of their timeless concept masterpiece “Misplaced Childhood” (1985), and especially its two hit singles, Marillion completely unexpectedly morphed from a cult new-wave prog rock band into a world-class act that could easily fill stadiums. A turnaround like that often brings negative consequences, though. Fish, the charismatic singer, first-rate poet, great stage performer and without a doubt the band’s central figure, felt the effects of the “rock star” lifestyle far more intensely than the rest of the guys. A hedonist at heart, he couldn’t resist the excesses that come with heavy touring, and when the responsibility of recording a new album suddenly landed on the table, he grew more and more fed up with it all, which ultimately led to his departure from the band after the tour. All those traumas, mostly tied to booze and women, he poured back into his deeply personal, confessional poetry. No wonder, then, that “Clutching At Straws” is an extremely personal album, a kind of epitaph for Fish and yet another concept about his life. One of Marillion’s trademarks had always been Fish’s poetry weaving tightly through the music and atmosphere, but the effect is even stronger this time, since let’s not forget that the album is the symbolic farewell of the Scottish giant (figuratively and literally). This time Fish used his alter ego as a metaphor for himself, a character he named Torch (also shown on the album cover, way over in the right-hand corner). Just as he used the court jester and the child as his other self in the past, Torch is a thinly veiled stand-in for Fish, the very embodiment of a bohemian who is losing his fight with alcohol, sinking into one addiction or another and losing touch with reality more and more (only to finally find himself again in the end). Even though “Clutching At Straws” isn’t a fully fledged concept album, most of the tracks on it are tied together by Torch and a thread that revolves around alcohol dependence, loneliness and above all the mutual alienation that fame usually causes.
On “Clutching At Straws” Marillion took their recognizable sound up another notch and created some of their finest work, even though there are no longer, epic-scale pieces on it, just mostly shorter tracks marked by a great sense of balance. Fish, with his vocals and poetry, is of course in the spotlight again, but the contribution of the other members shouldn’t be overlooked. Rothery, for instance, pushed his guitar playing even further and came up with some of his most emotional solos. Mood-wise this is an extremely melancholic album, one where it’s not hard at all to picture a lonely, dreamy Fish in the packed (or emptied-out) bar from the cover, staring from behind the counter into a glass that’s always empty for him.
The opener “Hotel Hobbies” is an extremely dynamic piece, full of energy. After the intro rattle of Mosley’s percussion and the thick line of Trewavas’s bass, Fish’s deeply melancholic vocals kick in. Rothery’s guitar nicely holds the central, calm melody, which ends with the first transition. In that first transition a subtle guitar solo comes in, carrying Fish’s melancholy to even greater expression. The ending brings another great guitar passage woven through the dramatic layer of Kelly’s keyboards. It’s a song about Fish’s evenings hanging out with groupies. A direct segue follows into “Warm Wet Circles”, which was also released as a single. The mood is again very calm at first, with really beautiful vocals from Fish. Kelly’s piano in the background builds up the incredibly tender and melancholic melody beneath subtle touches of Rothery’s guitar. The peak arrives with the dramatic chorus and an angrily sad Fish, followed by a bombastically melancholic guitar solo with some very good fills from Mosley on drums. The moment Fish’s vocals hit their peak of drama, the piano carries the song off into another world. Then the spacey synths kick in, and with that the phenomenal “That Time Of The Night (The Short Straw)” arrives directly. It begins with yet another tender melody and a sad Fish, then come incredibly deep synth curtains and atmospheric guitar touches. After that follows a fragile piano passage and the unrivaled Fish with his richly colorful vocal plays. The best part comes at the end, with an outstanding transition, followed by the main chorus building all the way to the end of the song, where superb female backing vocal harmonies come in too. Finger-lickin’ good! “Going Under” opens with a fragile, melancholic melody on acoustic guitar. Once again, Fish’s vocals are a joy to hear, expressing a mood somewhere between loneliness and madness. A deep synth line deepens that mood even further and ends with a sudden exit. The excellent “Just For The Record” is one of the most experimental pieces on the album, where the main draws are Rothery’s super melodic guitar and Fish’s deeply felt vocals, boosted by a bouncy rhythm line that creates an energetic mood. The best part arrives after the synth solo, when multi-part choruses follow one another along with another superb synth solo from the maestro Kelly, which intertwines with an equally thrilling solo from the maestro Rothery. Fish tops it all off, creating the mood of a drunk who, after liters of beer, feels like nothing in this world can stop him. “White Russian”, which deals with the racism that gripped Austria in the late 80s, is another extremely melancholic piece, which after a quiet intro opens with a hugely dramatic transition and Fish’s frothing vocals. The most gripping part is the stunning chorus “where do we go from here”, which can be read as Fish asking himself which musical paths the band is heading down. Here too we get a great ending with a dramatic guitar solo. Next comes the hugely fun, witty and relaxing “Incommunicado”, which completely flips the sad mood, since it may even be the funniest piece they’ve done so far. It’s one of their most beloved classics (and don’t overlook the great video, where Fish plays a sloshed drunk who’d like to be famous but doesn’t want to take on all the responsibilities that come with fame!), and it could easily be played at, say, football matches. Honestly, everything about this track is hilarious. From the super bouncy, wound-up rhythm line and the cheeky synths, not to mention Fish’s vocal outbursts. This is the song that really captures his personality best. “Incommunicado” was also released as a single, and to this day it has kept its status as one of the band’s most popular pieces. “Torch Song” is the moment when Torch ends up in front of a doctor, who tells him that if he keeps going with that lifestyle, he won’t live to see thirty. It’s a short, calm piece that flows via piano into the excellent “Slainte Mhath” (the two pieces are closely linked anyway). The song is carried mostly by deep synth sounds and excellent guitar passages. After a dramatic transition comes what is by now a traditional synth climax for them, alongside some really good bass guitar growling. The mood, through Fish’s vocals, is full of self-questioning, as Torch suddenly finds himself at a crossroads in his life. “Sugar Mice”, which was also released as a single, is an extremely beautiful power ballad and another one of the album’s peaks. Marillion made quite a few outstanding power ballads in their career, but of the ones with Fish I’d pick the “sugar mice in the rain” one. It’s basically Fish’s farewell song (his decision to leave the band can be felt in most of the lyrics). What really impresses is how positivity and pessimism keep alternating amid all that melancholy. And especially the excellent transition via the guitar solo, which works like a ray of light shining into a dark room. “The Last Straw”, which also carries the subtitle “Happy Ending”, is an excellent closer, maybe even the album’s high point, announcing that everything ended happily and that Torch finally pulled himself together by starting to write songs again. Here all the band’s best qualities bloom once more, and what impresses most is surely the epic ending through excellent guitar passages woven with the keyboards. This is followed by Fish’s stunning vocals, joined in the end by backing female vocals, which lift the piece up one more notch and provide a great finish to one of the band’s most magnificent albums and to 80s (neo) progressive rock.
I warmly recommend getting the two-CD reissue, since it contains some unreleased demo recordings made for the next album with Fish, which of course never came out. A few of them, after a major upgrade, even came out on the next album, “Seasons End” (1989), like “Sunset Hill”, which is an unfinished version of “King Of Sunset Town”. Most of them have poor sound and you can tell they’re still in a rough phase, so I won’t describe them in detail. Still, some, like “Beaujolias Day”, showed plenty of promise. A real fan will recognize them right away, of course. The rest are alternate versions of “Going Under”, “White Russian”, “Sugar Mice in the Rain” and a hidden version of “Warm Wet Circles”, all dating from the “Clutching At Straws” recording sessions. There’s also an alternate version of “Incommunicado” and the solid “Tux On”, which has a bouncy chorus and some excellent guitar passages.
“Clutching At Straws” is the final masterpiece of the Fish era, which ended like a sugar mouse dissolved in a glass of Scotch whisky. Marillion proved once again that they hadn’t rested on the laurels of the previous album, and created one of their most balanced albums yet. “Clutching At Straws” is a great album and one of the peaks of neo-prog rock. Every album of the Fish era was a masterpiece in its own way, but thanks to its “barroom” atmosphere, tied to the looming departure of the charismatic Fish, “Clutching At Straws” holds a special place in the hearts of most fans of the band. Many predicted a swift decline and a quick end of the road for the band after it, but luckily it all ended happily. Even though I love both phases of the band (neo-prog and art rock), I can’t get past the fact that the Fish era had a special magic they never managed to revive, even though they had a string of excellent albums. In the end, though, his departure paid off, both for Fish, who started a successful solo career, and for Marillion, who were reborn with the next album, stepped into a new creative period, and by gradually saying goodbye to neo-prog became an even more diverse and mature band than before.
Lineup
Fish – vocals
Steve Rothery – guitar
Pete Trewavas – bass guitar
Mark Kelly – keyboards
Ian Mosley – drums, percussion
GUEST MUSICIANS:
John Cavanagh – voice of Dr. Finley (8)
Christopher Robbin Kimsey – backing vocals (7)
Tessa Niles – backing vocals (2 and 11)
Production
Chris Kimsey
Tracklist
1. Hotel hobbies (3:35)
2. Warm wet circles (4:25)
3. That time of the night (The short straw) (6:00)
4. Going under (2:47)
5. Just for the record (3:09)
6. White Russian (6:27)
7. Incommunicado (5:16)
8. Torch song (4:04)
9. Slàinte Mhath (4:45)
10. Sugar mice (5:46)
11. The last straw (5:58)
Album length: 52:18
Bonus disc from the 1999 reissue:
1. Incommunicade (alternate) (5:37)
2. Tux on (single) (5:13)
3. Going under (Extended) (2:48)
4. Beaujolais day (unreleased) (4:51)
5. Story from a thin wall (unreleased) (6:47)
6. Shadows on the barley (unreleased) (2:07)
7. Sunset hill (unreleased) (4:21)
8. Tic-tac-toe(unreleased) 2:59
9. Voice in the crowd (unreleased) (3:29)
10. Exile on Princes Street (Unreleased) (5:29)
11. White Russian (6:15)
12. Sugar mice in the rain (5:56)
13. Warm wet circles – Rock n Roll (hidden track) (2:20)
Album length: 56:12
Total running time: 108:30
