Label: Fishy Music Ltd.
Release date: September 25, 2020
Producer: Calum Malcolm
Album length: 84.30 min
Genre: Neo-Progressive Rock / Art Rock
Rating: 9/10
“Weltschmerz” is the long-awaited farewell studio album from the cult Scottish singer, songwriter, poet and actor Derek William Dick, better known by the stage name Fish. Fish spent a full five years on “Weltscmerz”, which, in the words of the charismatic frontman, is the closing act of his rich and eventful musical career, not counting the currently pretty shaky farewell tour in support of the new record. Back in 2018 he put out what is so far his one and only ‘proper’ EP, “A Parley of Angels”, which featured three tracks that were re-released on “Weltschmerz” and worked as a kind of warm-up for one of the most interesting and unusual albums of his solo career, which kicked off ‘way back’ in 1988, when he left the legendary prog rock band Marillion.
The album title is a compound of two German words, for melancholy and for bone-deep exhaustion from all the personal and worldly troubles piling up on Fish’s soul over the last few years. “Weltshmerz” is a very personal album, and most of the lyrics draw on Fish’s own experiences, good and bad, from the past five years. Between 2015 and 2020 he went through his father’s death, the serious illness of his 87-year-old mother, whom he and his wife now have to look after together, Trump’s election to the White House, the start of the war in Syria, the start of the refugee crisis, a bout of sepsis that nearly cost him his life, surgery on his spine and hands, and a personal creative block that left him struggling badly to come up with new music. But the event that hit him hardest in that time, and the one that proved decisive in breaking the block, was the terrorist massacre of 89 music fans in the middle of the Bataclan theater in Paris.
While making “Weltschmerz”, Fish gathered some old pals around him, like longtime bassist Steve Vantsis, guitarist Robin Boult and keyboardist Foss Patterson (ex-Camel), while guitar virtuoso John Mitchell (Arena, Lonely Robot, It Bitest, Frost*) and drum wizard Craig Blundell (Lonely Robot, ex-Pendragon) got their first shot at working with the cult Scottish artist. Fish’s ‘ace up the sleeve’ this time is the cult saxophonist/flutist David Jackson (ex-Van der Graaf Generator), whose distinctive sax lines richly liven up the ambient feel of some of the compositions and add a bit of jazzy charm too. Guest female vocal harmonies, handled brilliantly this time by Doris Brendel, have been a Fish trademark on his albums since roughly the start of the new century.
“Weltschmerz” is atmospheric and, as you’d expect, deeply melancholic, but far from a downer. It reflects the worldview and experience of a seasoned man in his late years, who has lived through and achieved things the average inhabitant of this planet wouldn’t manage in ten lifetimes put together. Listening to the individual “Weltschmerz” compositions, there’s a constant feeling of the end of an era hanging ‘in the air’. The album holds some of Fish’s most mature and complex creations ever and gets more interesting with every new spin, because the layered ambient, instrumental and lyrical nature of the songs simply can’t be conquered on the first listen.
The opening “Grace of God” already sets off an incredibly rich atmospheric journey with plenty of rhythmic twists, lavish orchestral arrangements, passionate female vocal harmonies and Fish’s always fully lived-in vocal performance. “Man With a Stick”, which also came out as a single, has almost hard rock passages, while the ambient depth comes mainly from colorful keyboard arrangements that wonderfully complement Fish’s cynically tinged vocal approach. The somewhat gloomy “Walking On Eggshells” stands out for its mighty symphonic arrangements, melancholic guitar lines and choir harmonies that fit Fish’s personal and rather abstract lyrics perfectly, with a femme fatale smack in the middle of them. “This Party’s Over”, which thanks to its acoustic and wind arrangements also has a few minimal folk touches, is a more upbeat number in which Fish looks back on a less glorious chapter of his past, when he was battling alcohol addiction.
The nearly sixteen-minute epic “Rose of Damascus”, featuring a Scottish chamber orchestra, is the first of three epics on “Weltschmertz” and one of its best pieces, with loads of shifts in atmosphere, unexpected tempo changes and Fish’s narration, which once again lands in exactly the right places. The sorrowful ballad “Garden of Remembrance” undoubtedly has the most personal lyrics on “Weltschmerz”, as it’s about Fish’s parents, especially his mother, who recently came down with Alzheimer’s disease. “C Song (The Trondheim Waltz)” is seasoned with just the right amount of subtle accordion and female backing harmonies, which together with Fish’s perfectly pitched vocals create a distinctly still-life mood.
The dark “Little Man What Now?”, written soon after the death of Fish’s father, was inspired by a novel by the German writer Hans Fallada. Jackson’s sax lines crank up the sorrowful mood, while Fish’s emotional states shift chameleon-like between melancholy, anger and serenity as he sings. The excellent backing vocals from Brendel, which include a touch of soul, are followed by a fantastic, instrumentally flavored finish. “Waverly Steps (End of The Line)”, a farewell epic with deeply personal lyrics, majestic orchestral arrangements and heart-wrenching vocal shape-shifting, can safely take its place among the best creations of Fish’s magnificent musical career. The closing act, which is also the title track and Fish’s sarcastic comment on modern society, is without a doubt the heaviest piece on the album, and the one that got a promo music video. Fish’s passionate vocal performance, mighty female vocal harmonies and angry guitar lines bring this superb track to its atmospheric boiling point and round off this excellent album in fitting style.
If “Weltschmerz” really is Fish’s last studio move, it’s an exceptionally dignified goodbye, worthy of a musician of his caliber, who has delighted us for almost forty years with his singing, songwriting and poetic talent and his outstanding stage charisma, which easily puts him among the fifteen, maybe even the ten greatest heroes in the history of progressive rock. By Fish’s own words, with “Weltscmertz”, which is without a doubt one of the brightest pearls of his solo career, he has said everything he had left to say musically. Despite the inevitable disappointment of his devoted fans, though, his creative career will very likely carry on in one way or another after the farewell tour, even if it happens outside of music.
Author: Peter “Dr. ProgRock” Podbrežnik
Track list:
CD1
1) Grace of God (Dick/Boult/Vantsis) 8.19
2) Man with a Stick (Dick/ Vantsis/Boult) 6.27
3) Walking on Eggshells (Dick/Vantsis) 7.18
4) This Party’s Over (Dick/Boult/Vantsis) 4.22
5) Rose of Damascus (Dick/Vantsis/Boult) 15.45
Total 42.12
CD2
6) Garden of Remembrance (Dick/JC Mitchell) 6.07
7) C Song (The Trondheim Waltz) (Dick/Paterson/Boult) 4.41
8) Little Man What Now? (Dick/Vantsis/Boult) 10.54
9) Waverley Steps (End of The Line)
(Dick/Vantsis/Boult) 13.45
10) Weltschmerz (Dick/Vantsis) 6.51
Musicians:
Fish – vocals
Steve Vantsis – bass guitar, keyboards, guitar, programming
Robin Boult – guitar
John Mitchell – guitar
Craig Blundell – drums
Dave Stewart – drums
David Jackson – saxophone
Liam Homes – keyboards
Foss Paterson – keyboards
Doris Brendel – backing vocals
Mikey Owers – wind arrangements
Scottish Chamber Orchestra – strings
