Suits

Fish released Suits in 1994, and unlike the album from the previous year, Songs from the Mirror, all the songs were new. The band remained the same, with Frank Usher and Robin Boult on guitar, David Paton on bass guitar and backing vocals, Foss Paterson on keyboards, and Kevin Wilkinson on drums and percussion. The album had been a long time in conception, and before recording and releasing took place, some of the material was "tested" on a live audience during the Outpatients Tour. This was also the first release on Fish's own record label, The Dick Bros Record Company. The album itself, although a solid offering, was not one of Fish's best. There seemed to be a tendency for the tracks to be too long with the endings repeating themselves, the shortest track just over five minutes long. The general public seemed disillusioned with Fish at this time, and after being released, the album only charted for two weeks, reaching a high of number 18. There were two singles released from the album: "Lady Let It Lie," which reached number 46, and "Fortunes of War," which could only get as high as 67. The low point of the album was "No Dummy," which goes nowhere, has the feel of a B-side, and seemed to be have included as a filler. The album did end on a high, however, as the last three tracks -- "Jumpsuit City," "Bandwagon," and "Raw Meat" -- were the best three songs. "Jumpsuit City" was a song based around prostitutes in the Reeperbahn and had a nice beat that verged on funk. "Raw Meat" closed the album and showed Fish at his best both lyrically and musically. The song's theme was life on the road as a musician, with the tune leaning more toward rock than others on the album. ~ Sharon Mawer|