An Emotional Fish
Junk Puppets

Years 1993-95

What great times when there was the legendary television channel Videomusic... The last phase of my childhood and my adolescence were accompanied by the images and especially the notes of music videos: thanks to these, I discovered new songs and new artists every day, and my passion for music grew endlessly. It was with the video of "Rain" that I learned about the existence of An Emotional Fish, an Irish band that (perhaps) someone remembers for their "Celebrate", much less "celebrated" (sorry for the pun) than its covered version by Vasco Rossi: "Gli spari sopra". But back to the single "Rain". The song was liked: a nice bass line, somewhat dark tones, and a chorus perhaps even a bit too sunny and melodic, but overall it was enjoyable to listen to. 

One fine day my brother came home with the cassette of "Junk Puppets". At first, it didn't find much space in my tape player because albums like the "Black Album" by Metallica or "Countdown To Extinction" by Megadeth were the undisputed rulers of my device. Yes, in those days I was a damn metalhead. Then little by little, over time and quietly, An Emotional Fish began to be heard beyond the oft-cited opener "Rain": beyond that boundary I had never crossed were great tracks like the fun and engaging "Harmony Central", the slow and calm "Sister Change", the aggressive "Hole In My Heaven" and "Yeh Yeh Yeh", and the beautiful "Careless Child" which is one of those songs that when you listen to it fills you with positive feelings. And then what happened?

Unfortunately, my dear tape player lived up to its name and indeed ate the delicate tape of "Junk Puppets" irreparably damaging itself and thus ending its long and honored career at my service.

Year 2008

A while ago I was looking at the list of my glorious cassettes that had not yet been replaced by the "compact disc version".  Only a few titles were missing, among them the almost forgotten album by An Emotional Fish. I embarked on a hunt. The responses of the record store clerks were more or less all the same (out of stock-out of production-out of luck), so I had no choice but to rely on the internet. After several unsuccessful searches, the right and unrepeatable opportunity arrived: I managed to win the auction on E-Bay and secure the much-coveted CD for 6 euros and 90 cents as the only bidder. The user who put the item up for sale must have popped a bottle of Champagne to celebrate the unexpected event. I finally managed to listen to it again: overall, it's a good pop-rock record, nothing exceptional, but the memories it brought back stirred in me a pleasant smiling nostalgia.