Review: Chris Squire – Fish Out Of Water (1975)

Fish Out Of Water is the first solo album by Yes bassist Chris Squire.

Yes had been working almost non-stop for years, producing successful and groundbreaking albums, immediately going on tour after each release and then repeating the same routine all over again.

After the massive Relayer tour ended in August 1975, the band decided to take a nine-month break from each other. However, Yes had been so successful and its members so talented that Atlantic Records offered each band member the opportunity to record a solo album. Of course, such an opportunity could not be passed up.

Virtuoso bassist Chris Squire (4 March 1948 – 27 June 2015) is not known for his quick movements (if we ignore the movements of his fingers on the bass strings), but surprisingly, his solo album Fish Out Of Water was the first Yes solo album on the market after guitarist Steve Howe’s Beginnings album.

Recorded in Squire’s home studio (where Relayer was also recorded), Fish Out Of Water was released in November 1975 and, along with Jon Anderson’s Olias Of Sunhillow (1976), is definitely the finest of the solo albums released during Yes’s sabbatical in 1975-76. Named after Squire’s nickname ”Fish” (earned by spending shockingly long periods of time in the bathtub), Fish Out Of Water is also perhaps the most Yes-sounding album in the series.

chris_squire

Squire’s vocals had always played an important role in Yes’s background harmonies, but on Fish Out Of Water, he ventures to sing all the vocals for the first time. And unlike Howe on his own album, Squire performs the task very well. Squire sings the vocals mostly with agility and skill. High and loud. At times, perhaps too high.

Squire’s background as a choirboy probably helped him with his vocals. Squire joined the choir at the age of five and sang in church choirs for years. His childhood friend and choir mate Andrew Pryce Jackman, who plays an important role on Fish Out Of Water, also joined the album. Jackman had also played keyboards in Squire’s pre-Yes band, The Syn, but now, in addition to playing keyboards, he also had a broader role on the album, arranging all the orchestrations on Fish Out Of Water.

The album makes effective use of the orchestra in a few songs, and Jackman’s orchestrations are considerably more refined than is usually the case on these rock band-meets-orchestra albums. Squire composed all five songs on the album himself and is also credited with the arrangements, but Jackman apparently helped with the composition of the songs in ways other than just the orchestrations. At least Squire has lavishly praised Jackman for his contribution to the album.

Read also:

Squire hired other talented and familiar musicians to help with the making of Fish Out Of Water. Somewhat surprisingly, all the drums on the album were played by Bill Bruford, who had left Yes a couple of years earlier to join King Crimson, much to Squire’s disappointment. This was surprising because Bruford and Squire never really clicked on a personal level. Nevertheless, the two of them once again form a damn good rhythm section on this album.

Fish Out Of Water contains some of the duo’s most memorable moments. In particular, the duo’s tremendous groove on the slightly funky ”Lucky Seven,” which, as its name suggests, is in 7/8 time, is truly thrilling to hear. Bruford’s sharp snare drum beats paired with Squire’s growling bass are something truly irresistible. ”Lucky Seven” reminds me somewhat of the songs on King Crimson’s Red album. It manages to combine equally impressive, catchy vocal parts with muscular and skillful prog instrumentation. Of course, Squire’s songs are lighter in mood than Crimson’s gloomier offerings. The mood of Fish Out Of Water is mostly delightfully optimistic and bright, without being corny, sentimental, or saccharine. The lyrics effectively combine an individualistic attitude with a hippie vibe that embraces the cosmos.

By the fates that drive us on
Upon the sea we swiftly sail
In the wake of the carnival trail
The more we try, the less we fail
You and I, the more we strive in our search for truth, love and honesty
Could be,
Lucky tonight
Ote ”Lucky Sevenin” sanoituksista

Wind instruments play a major role on the album. Mel Collins, known from King Crimson, plays saxophones on the album, and Jimmy Hastings, a frequent guest with Caravan, plays the flute beautifully on the track ”You By My Side.” There is plenty of room for wind instruments on the album, as there is no electric guitar to be heard at all. Squire’s bass guitar often takes the lead on ”Fish Out Of Water,” almost like a guitar, but always in a musical way and on the terms of the great songs. Replacing the guitar with wind instruments (and bass…) is a good solution, because it allowed Squire to conveniently break away from Yes’s music.

Squire’s compositions are skillful and carefully arranged. They are richly orchestrated (in terms of more than just the occasional use of an orchestra), melodic and rhythmically strong, and stylistically clearly leaning towards the symphonic progressive rock favored by Yes. Squire does not favor quite as epic forms in his songs as Yes does, even though a couple of the songs on the album exceed the ten-minute mark. Unlike Yes’s songs, which clearly break the molds of popular music, Squire’s works are more or less built on familiar pop music formulas, only cleverly stretching and distorting them. The clearest exception to this is ”Safe (Canon Song),” which draws on classical music, utilizing counterpoint in its structure.

In particular, the 11-minute ”Silently Falling” (featuring a wonderful organ solo by Patrick Moraz) and the 7-minute ”Lucky Seven” are magnificent tracks, but there isn’t a single weak track on the album. The album’s closing track, ”Safe (Canon Song),” with its massive ending, as great as it sounds in principle, is far too long and would have benefited from being edited down by a few minutes.

Fish Out Of Water is, on the whole, a surprisingly successful solo album, and it is a great pity that it remains Squire’s only solo album, if we disregard his 2007 Christmas album Chris Squire’s Swiss Choir (which is surprisingly good!).I would have liked to hear more material like Fish Out Of Water’s. Now we have to settle for echoes that can be heard in some of the songs Squire composed for later Yes albums, the most obvious examples being ”Parallels” (Going For The One, 1977) and ”Can You Imagine?” (Magnification, 2001).

Best tracks: ”Silently Falling”, ”Lucky Seven”

Rating: 5 out of 5.
Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI

Tracks:

Side A:

”Hold Out Your Hand” 4:13
”You by My Side” 5:00
”Silently Falling” 11:27

Side B
 ”Lucky Seven” 6:54
”Safe (Canon Song)” 14:56

Musicians:

Chris Squire: vocals, bass, 12-string guitar Bill Bruford: drums, percussion Mel Collins: tenor saxophone (track 3), alto saxophone, soprano saxophone (track 4) Jimmy Hastings: flute (track 2) Patrick Moraz: synthesizer, organ (track 3) Barry Rose: church organ (track 1) Andrew Pryce Jackman: piano and electric piano, orchestrations, conductor Julian Gaillard: strings leader John Wilbraham: brass leader Adrian Bett: woodwind leader Nikki Squire: backing vocals (track 1)

Producer: Chris Squire

Label: Atlantic

Jätä kommentti

Website Built with WordPress.com.

Ylös ↑