And Joy. Hooray, hooray is there anything that we can get more excited for than the release of a studio album from a band notorious for its live performance, improvisation and drug culture? So of course, when I hear the rumor mill talking up a new Phish album, I yawned. Or something else that indicates a lack of excitement. Mainly because Phish’s last two studio enterprises, Round Room and Undermine, sucked. Like a Hoover. In a black hole.
The first time I spun it (spun… god I feel ancient), I was surprised at how tight the production was. Steve Lillywhite, who helped Phish put together 1996’s Billy Breathes, came back to produce and he helped develop a crisp sound that fits the music like a glove.
Phish has always been associated with the Grateful Dead, and in the past, I could rebuke this comments, saying that only the entire culture and lifestyle associated with each band was similar, not so much the music. Joy was a proverbial poke in the eye for me, as a lot of the stuff sounds like The Dead. The worst offender is “Ocelot”. The song got me thinking, cause really… Ocelot? Most people don’t know what the damned animal is. Kids, we have to stop cutting down the rainforest because otherwise, we’re going to run out of animals to write songs about. If we’re at friggin’ ocelot already, we’re getting there a lot quicker than most of you think. Recycle paper, don’t drink bottled water, do your part.
Mike Gordon gets a songwriting credit with “Sugar Shack”, which sounds a bit like old Phish, all cheery and happy with its’ playful, Caribbean tone and light funk (fans of older Phish: the funk is back on this album. Not in full force, but it is present). The lyrical dissonance is stunning, however, as the phrase “as the screaming fades away below” is in sung in Caribbean romp, making it all seem very surreal, even borderline avant-garde.
The album has spawned two singles so far: “Backwards Down the Number Line” and “Time Turns Elastic.” The former started life as words in a birthday card and now has killer guitar solos and plain sweet licks. Now that I’m done gushing like a 15 year old that just listened to Hendrix for the first time, I’ll end by saying it’s probably the best song on the album. This phrase is a poor segue, but it helps me get to the other single, just about the least likely candidate for a single ever. “Time Turns Elastic” started off as a song arranged for an orchestra. With rock instruments though, it’s a heaping, 13-minute slice of complex instrumentation, with guitars weaving through tinkling keys and assorted vague lyrics about time. Nice piece of progressive rock for fans out there.
Excellent segue #2: lyrics. Fans of old Phish will be accustomed to nonsense lyrics about being slaves to traffic lights, the wolfman’s brother, and whatever the hell they say in “You Enjoy Myself.” Modern Phish lyrics have been a bit more serious, but this stuff’s really heavy. The lyrics are about time, and life, Trey’s road to recovery from addiction (I know, members of Phish, addicted to drugs! What’s this world coming to?), and also Trey coping with his sister dying of cancer. And Phish billed this as a celebration album!
No matter what, though, it’s still a great summation of Phish’s career. If you haven’t heard Phish before, there are far worse ways to get into the band, and if you’ve liked them before, you still will. I mean, in the downloading age, you can let a little Joy into your life with the click of a mouse, and really, why wouldn’t you want to?
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