Release date: April 19, 1999
Label: Roadrunner Records
Production: Elliot Ness
Length: 54:24
Genre: progressive rock
Rating: 9.5/10
Released in 1999, “Raingods With Zippos” belongs at the very top of Fish’s solo career, right next to the debut “Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors” (1989). After the otherwise excellent predecessor “Sunsets on Empire” (1997), which sadly brought a financial loss and the collapse of the independent label Dick Brothers, Fish moved over to Roadrunner Records for a short stint, a label best known for its work with heavy metal acts.
On “Raingods with Zippos,” an album quite different from its predecessor in terms of arrangements and atmosphere, Fish again teamed up with the by now cult, if not famous, guitarist/vocalist/producer Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree). This time around Wilson handled neither production nor songwriting, but still chipped in a few guitar favors. Keyboards were covered by Fish’s “old acquaintance” Mickey Simmonds, a well-known occasional keyboardist who, besides Fish, most often worked with other prog rock icons like Camel, Renaissance and Mike Oldfield, as well as assorted pop rock names led by Paul Young and Art Garfunkel. It was also the first album to feature Fish’s longtime bassist Steve Wantsis, one of the few musicians who stuck around for more than a decade.
“Raingods with Zippos” is dominated by a more ethereal and noticeably subtler ambient feel compared to the darker, harder predecessor, where you could also pick up a few influences from Wilson’s Porcupine Tree. This time it was a far more personal project with plenty of melancholic and dreamy moments, which by no means meant there were no epic-dramatic vocal performances, complex arrangements, unusual time changes and potent guitar passages.
The opening “Tumbledown” aptly sets the ambient pulse of “Raingods With Zippos”; a long intro with delicate piano arrangements gives way to a dramatic section where Fish is repeatedly joined by wonderfully fitting backing vocal harmonies, while the whole thing is propped up by hefty guitar phrases and a variety of synth textures. The chorus is great and stays in your head for a long time. The fun “Mission Statement,” where the superb female backing harmonies surprise again, has slight funk and blues touches, with Fish delivering that signature chameleon-like vocal turn.
“Incomplete” is a sorrowful, string-spiced ballad where Elisabeth Troy Antwi joins Fish on lead vocals. Many years later she also contributed backing vocals to Fish’s album “A Feast of Consequences” (2013). The unusual vocal duet works out wonderfully, even if it’s not another “Don’t Give Up.” “Tilted Cross” is yet another ballad, this time distinctly acoustic, and once again the lovely female backing harmonies are there. By this point you might think Fish had gotten overly sentimental after hitting middle age, but that’s not the case. Next up is “Faith Healer,” one of the rare covers in the Fish catalog, originally by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. In a prog rock and at the same time distinctly heavier form, it comes out downright great, with Fish delivering one of the most vivid vocal performances on the album. The ballad “Rites of Passage,” steeped in a gorgeous, slightly Celtic atmosphere, ruled by rich symphonic arrangements and with Fish slipping back into a mourning mood, is a kind of calm before the final “storm.”
That kind of “storm,” and the peak of the album, is the nearly twenty-five-minute epic suite “Plague of Ghosts,” split into six interconnected tracks, although it could just as well have been recorded in one piece. With it, the Scottish vocal chameleon briefly even managed to outshine his former Marillion buddies in this period. Each part of this epic adventure, which among other things includes a close encounter with “chocolate frogs,” forms its own chapter, culminating in “Raingods Dancing,” which can be declared the ambient climax of the entire album. Here you can also hear a rich use of keyboard-generated rhythmic sequences and electronic samples, which naturally evoke associations with some of the then-current work of Peter Gabriel, Fish’s vocal idol.
With “Raingods With Zippos,” the Scottish progressive rock veteran created one of the shiniest gems of a solo career, and it’s still something to be immensely proud of today. The album was exactly to the taste of Fish’s traditional followers from the Marillion days, and here Fish briefly outshone Marillion artistically, something that never really happened again. All those who had been sulking that Fish still hadn’t managed a solo album on par with the Marillion past finally went quiet, and right before the end of the 20th century Fish moved up for good into the “first league” of solo prog rock acts.
by: Peter Podbrežnik
tracklist:
1. Tumbledown
2. Mission Statement
3. Incomplete
4. Tilted Cross
5. Faith Healer
6. Rites of Passage
7. Plague of Ghosts: (I) Old Haunts
8. Plague of Ghosts: (II) Digging Deep
9. Plague of Ghosts: (III) Chocolate Frogs
10. Plague of Ghosts: (IV) Waving at Stars
11. Plague of Ghosts: (V) Raingods Dancing
12. Plague of Ghosts: (VI) Wake-Up Call (Make it Happen)
musicians:
Fish (Derek W. Dick) – vocals
Steven Wilson – guitar (tracks 1,5,7,8,9,10,11 and 12)
Bruce Watson -guitar (1 and 2), mandolin (3)
Robin Boult – guitar (2,3,4 and 5)
Till Paulmann – guitar (2)
Phil Grieve – guitar (5)
Steve Vantsis – bass guitar (1,2,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and 12), double bass (3 and 4)
Tony Turrell – keyboards (1,5,7,8,9,10,11 and 12). piano (2), organ (2), harmonium (3 and 4), synthesizer (4), programming (7,8,9,10,11 and 12), string arrangements (5), samples (7,8,9,10,11 and 12)
Mickey Simmonds – keyboards (5 and 6), piano (1), programming (6)
Dave Stewart – drums (1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and 12)
Davey Crichton – violin (5), whistle (4), string arrangements (3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 and 12)
Dave Haswell – percussion
Elisabeth Antwi – vocals (3), backing vocals (1)
Nicola King – backing vocals (2,4,7,8,9,10,11 and 12)
Tony King – backing vocals (2,7,8,9,10,11 and 12)
Mo Warden – spoken vocals at the outro of the track (12)
Mark Daghorn – programming (7,8,9,10,11 and 12)
Elliot Ness – string arrangements (3,5 and 6), samples (7,8,9,10,11 and 12)
