FISH - Field Of Crows (2004-ish)

Field Of Crows is kind of a record of contradictions, and I'm trying to get my head around my exact thoughts.  Even the title of the post refers to the fact that more than five months elapsed between its mail-order release and its retail release, such that release date could be said to be 2003 or 2004.  The record is a stripped down rock oriented record that sheds the layers of instruments, female backing vocals, and arguable excesses of the Fellini era... to come up with a collection of songs that includes none under five minutes, in a record that's over sixty-five minutes long.  That's a lot of Fish for something not designated as some kind of "double album."  Suddenly, the principal songwriters besides Mr. Dick are guitarist Bruce Watson and Scottish composer/producer Irvin Duguid.  Because... uh, why not?  Although it's good to have Tony Turrell back on board and a co-writer on arguably the two best tracks here (will I conclude that they are?  Well, here's the post about it).

Track One:  "The Field"

The first thing one hears on Field Of Crows is a gentle strummed guitar riff that Fish starts singing a gentle melody over.  Moments like that ensure that Field has always been, in my had, a back-to-basics record.  "The Field" is what will go on to become a typical Fish opener, patiently building a picture in no hurry to get to a point.  "Field" is especially guilty in the "no hurry" regard, being nearly nine minutes of mostly good sounding stuff that keeps threatening to resolve into a chorus or a hook but steadfastly refuses to do so.  "Take the field" isn't really a chorus.

Another thing happening here is Fish's refusal to ever kill a darling - guy is in love with everything he writes.  This would lead him, on both this record and the next one (spoiler...) to start writing a concept album, kind of give up on the concept, but keep the songs anyway.  So, apparently "The Field" was at one point supposed to be the origin story of a character who's grown up weird, reclusive, and God-fearing/God-wacky. 

Track Two:  "Moving Targets"

Once Track One finally ends, it becomes clear that Field will remain guitar-focused, without too many vocal gymnastics.  I wonder if the straightforward melodies are part of the transition to his eventual acceptance that his vocal range is different than when he was young?  I like the song overall even if I don't think about it too much - the mix of determined/uplifting delivery and the dark content of someone either literally or figuratively at war with society.

Unclear to me if "Moving Targets" was supposed to be part of the narrative back when there was one - seems like too quick a transition for the main character to start shooting up the city, but there are some explicit links to the previous song with a few "field" lyrics and so on.

Track Three:  "The Rookie"

"Your passion, fire, and anger is something we can use."  Well, that's not creepy at all; can't imagine that leading anywhere bad.  

 

That dum-dum-DUM-dum rhythm is kind of irresistible.  Especially when paired with the frenetic keyboard thing.  The repetition helps make sure the listener gets the song thoroughly stuck in their head.  I kind of wonder if Fish was trying to write a "Jeepster" for himself.  From the overall feel of the two songs, right down to the way the chorus ends with an off-the-beat lyric, I think of "The Rookie" as kind of a darker sibling to "Mission Statement."

Track Four:  "Zoo Class"

So, there are different vaguely guilty pleasures in the Fish catalog.  There are songs that maybe I can't articulate quite why I like and don't always hold my attention but I still feel well disposed towards; I just enjoy listening to "The Rookie" (like "Credo" and so many others before it).  There are also songs that I can't shake the suspicion might be stupid and terrible.  A lot of times they're the ones with bombastic horn parts like "Big Wedge" (which I do like a lot).  "Zoo Class" feels like more of a guilty pleasure than a regular pleasure.  That said, it is definitely a pleasure.  The bluesy progression might be more addictive than the one from "The Rookie."  

 

The silly chorus is probably the main reason I wonder if should feel guilty for liking the tune, which is probably actually most marred by the "fuck like an animal" second verse and lengthy (ha ha) string of dick jokes.  Thing is, that part is pretty easy to ignore in favor of the better animal puns.  "The paper tigers whimper at the clicking of a mouse."  That's good stuff.  Or summarizing a club scene: "Gorillas in the doorway, lizards in the lounge, offering their Camels, Moscow mules are going down."  Heh.  

Track Five:  "The Lost Plot"

Tony hits us with an evocative keyboard part that... yeah, it's clearly supposed to be the intro to "Sláinte Mhanth," and yes, we recognize that it's " Sláinte."  While we're in a nostalgic mood, Fish then looks backward on the proverbial plot that's been lost navigating the world of snakes and ladders, using one of those vocal melodies that pulls the listener along the way only he can.  I feel humility and regret for my own choices when he sings 

[...] my head was in the clouds, chasing dragons
I thought I could fly on wings of desire, didn't realize 

How far I could fall, how low I could crawl 

Seriously, I don't know what the code is to having me utterly riveted while naval-gazing, but Fish has cracked said code.  "The Lost Plot" is exactly the sort of thing he does best.  

Oh, and then having already set up the board game scheme with the first "snakes and ladders" chorus, he then waits until the end of the second verse to hit us with "the game was over."  Normally I cringe at the references to past songs.  Here the perfectly placed callback to the song with which much of the world first met Fish lands, well, perfectly.

And then there's a nice guitar solo.  And it kind of keeps going.  Dude, the song was over a minute a half ago.  Fish is sometimes accused of not knowing how to end a song, and, well...

Track Six:  "Old Crow"

As far as tunes that I find catchy as fuck, besides the straightforward but good ones like "The Rookie" and the slightly guilty pleasures like "Zoo Class," there are also the ones that just seem bizzarre, leaving me intrigued yet totally confused.  I'm not sure what this even is, except that I do like it.  I have no idea why Fish is doing this almost rockabilly thing except with hard-rock guitars.  Also don't know why the crow is hopping, how the narrator knows that he has left the Fields and gotten some new (presumably big) ideas, or how it all ties together.  I just kinda want to dance.  I always look forward to getting to "Old Crow" on every listen-through to the record, seriously. 

Track Seven:  "Numbers"

I like the riff to this one too.  Musically the hooks aren't quite as hooky as the best on the record, but I won't complain about hearing it.  I have to give the first half of the song credit for how well it commits to the gimmick of telling a story by counting up, with one number in each line.  And then I guess I have to criticize the way it abandons it to talk about more general topics.  But then I have to give props for "all we do is multiply" as the way to mark that transition, and for the line "when 9/11 became 24/7."  Clever plus emotional heft, however calculated it may be, is a winning formula.

Track Eight:  "Exit Wound"

Okay, it took all record: we have finally reached a track that leaves no real impression on me no matter how many times I listen to the song.  Listening to it now, the main things I notice are repetition and too much saxophone.  The tune is a lot like the one from "The Lost Cause" but way less interesting.  [*Shrug*]  Of all of the songs in the world, "Exit Wound" is one of them.*

Track Nine:  "Innocent Party"

How nice is it hear Fish back to his one-per-record expectoration of pure bile?  Even better, rather than the usual railing at a bitch who broke his heart, the "you" targeted here seems to be a (possibly literal or possibly figurative) politician who really needs to be told that they are full of hot air, and sure as fuck are not the innocent party here.  Shout out to whoever's on guitar on this particular track, for actually pulling off the rare trick of making a solo that's just the melody of the verse sound not only good, but downright funky.  And shout out to the suprrisingly complex piano part that makes the outro work.  Lot of bobbing one's head ensues.

I feel like I need to quote some lyrics, because they're so much fun to hear sung with such righteous disdain:

A fool on the wing flew too close to the sun

You burned out and dropped out the sky
And everyone stared, but did anyone care?
No one remembers your name

Track Ten:  "Shot The Craw"

When I first listened to Field Of Crows in my initial first spin through Fish's discography, I quickly gravitated towards the vulnerable, mournful tune in which the narrator ashamedly proclaims over and over that he "shot the craw."  So STC was an early favorite.  On subsequent listens I was less captivated and had my attention wander.  Returning to the record now I was disappointed to realize that the song is basically the same two musical ideas over and over, ot the point that when I'm in the wrong mood I might describe STC as outright boring.  And yet, literally as I write up this post, I'm listening to "Shot The Craw" one more time, and it's growing on me again.  At least somewhat.  The repeated parts are undeniably strong, no matter how repeated, and the keyboard part (sounds like a harpsichord or something) is a highlight again.  

 

I do, however, absolutely hate the "baby's coming back!" outro, especially with the weird voices Fish does for no discernable reason.

Track Eleven:  "Scattering Crows (Still Time)"

At this point a lot of Tony's keyboard parts sound like "Plague Of Ghosts" redux, and you will never hear me complain about that.  Every time I listen to "Scattering Crows" I doubt whether I like it as much as I think I do, because the first two minutes or so do seem so inert, with some fairly straightforward pleas for forgiveness from a significant other, or at least for time to earn it.  Then 2:15, the piano riff that's been in the background bursts into the forefront and the singer's mounting desperation leads Fish to go up a few steps and just fucking wreck me with his delivery of the title lyric.  That sounds like it should be the end of the song, but it insists on hanging around, emphasizing its best hook.  Just a gorgeous few minutes of music.  Look, regardless of whether it makes literal sense, Fish has always been able to paint a picture with his weird turns of phrase.  Well, regret mixed with a certain confident determination is somehow encapsulated perfectly in the image of a man striding across a field, scattering crows.  The reason I listen to Fish is for moments like this.

Final thoughts:

From the jump, Field Of Crows declared itself to me as a return to form after the uneven Fellini Days.  Despite the length, it seemed tight and focused on quality tunes.

Now, this is not the conventional wisdom.  Conventional wisdom says that we're still mired in Fish's weakest period.  He of course loves everything he's ever put out so he never has a bad word to say about the record, but he has at least admitted that he was in a rudderless time of his life, indicating that the record didn't go anywhere commercially and that his immediate retreat into doing a Misplaced Childhood anniversary tour right after is a pretty sure sign that he was adrift, creatively speaking.  And yeah, I get that Field is scattershot.  Bloated songs that don't know how to end.  Common lyrics pervade the record - fields, crows, oil, ideas, numbers, things being "lost" - that never really congeal into a coherent concept other than the aforementioned abandoned one.  "Zoo Class" and "Old Crow" are weird songs, even if they're catchy.

Having spent a few weeks with the record on and off deciding whether my initial impressions still hold up, I'm going to stick to my guns.  Unlike Fellini, the core of each song is generally recognizable as rock-n-roll.  Unlike Fellini, the stew of ideas here is almost always good ones; I have to think that focusing on the blues-rock core of his sound was the right move.  Unlike most records by either Fish or most other people, every track has something to grab onto, never dipping below "decent" in quality and more often hitting runs in which it seems I like or love every song.  After being back in the field scattering crows with the record's closing track, I've been on a journey that's been more than the sum of its ramshackle parts.  Field Of Crows isn't the best Fish record, but it's one for which I have a lot of affection.  The world, including many Fish fans, is sleeping on a bit of an unheralded gem here.

Favorite track:  "The Lost Plot"

Runner up:  "Scattering Crows"

Least favorite track:  "Exit Wound"

Rating:  4/5

 

Definitive running list of records by Fish/Marillion that I have profiled so far, in order of what I have decided is unambiguously their quality 

1)  Clutching At Straws

2)  Misplaced Childhood

3)  Raingods With Zippos

4)  Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors

5)  Internal Exile

6)  Fugazi

7)  Field Of Crows

8)  Market Square Heroes (single)

9)  Sunsets On Empire

10)  Script For A Jester’s Tear

11)  Fellini Days

12)  Suits

13)  Songs From The Mirror

We continue with 13th Star whenever I get around to it!

*or to use internet lingo from a few years ago, "one of the songs of all time"