#14 - Top of 2020

 Fish -Weltschmerz (7Hz Productions)

Exactly 31 years after leaving Marillion, Fish delivers to us his final musical output. A heavy and difficult decision, an album  full of ominous twists and turns, taking a journey of almost five years to make. Struck by the loss of his father and his mother's dementia, along with health problems, Fish was in trouble with delivering his final piece of music. However, he is used to putting himself in a difficult position. Fish's sensors have been confirmed countless times, and his penetrating observation of modern day targeted this German word that eventually christened the album, a word meaning "global pain", truly prophetic, as it was recorded before the age of  Covid-19, which provided the meaning of the title with an additional semantic weight. Th album is undoubtedly a collection of dark subjects, as the "global pain" in its name demands. "Waverley Steps" investigates suicide, the story of a common human personal disaster that leaves a lonely and impoverished man in a tender winter moment, and "C Song" is written from the standpoint of a man diagnosed with cancer. "Little Man What Now" is inspired by the novel of the same name by German author Hans Fallada, which describes a young couple struggling to survive the financial crisis of the 1930s, with a clear link to the present situation. "Man With a Stick", follows the "stick" in various forms, whether it is a symbol of strength in the course of life and ends up quite the opposite at the end of the road. While, "The Rose of Damascus". is a  15 minute epic about a refugee from Syria, while "Garden of memory" speaks about dementia and its impact on human relationships through the story of a couple. The curtain falls with the titular song, a clear call for resistance to the filth around us, to change things in this world of reckless grabbing. The Scottish warrior with the grey beard always knew that his only weapons were his words. The goal was to write an album that would make the listener wonder "What happens Next". The bard has left the building, indicating it is time for actions and not words...

94.65/100

Below are the music videos for "Weltschmerz" and "The Party's over"