Phish's Farmhouse "Downright Addictive" May 15, 2000 - Oregon SU Daily Barometer By Ryan Gabrielson Album Review - Farmhouse CORVALLIS, Ore. -- It will surprise even the most die-hard of Phish fans. It will surprise people who have yet to discover just how good a band Phish really is. It will surprise station managers and program directors at radio stations around the country. Then again, can a jazz-influenced rock band that specializes in jam sessions and has been known to borrow Will Smith and Beastie Boys songs for their own performance really be predictable? Probably not. Farmhouse, Phish's latest in a long line of underrated, listener-supported albums that, despite their musical superiority, have failed to reach the nation's airwaves, may be the band's own version of the crossover album. From the opening title track that isn't just catchy but more like down-right addictive. Supplying everything from a mellow acoustic instrumental "The Inlaw Josie Wales," featuring a banjo-playing Bela Fleck, to a very rocking "Piper," the band serves everybody's needs and wants for a new Phish album. From the opening title track that isn't just catchy but more like down-right addictive to the CD's final two songs, "Sand" and "First Tube," which pick up where 1998's funk-driven jam-heavy Story of the Ghost left off, Farmhouse is certain to satisfy everyone. Still, longtime fans will probably argue that the album strays too far from the distinctive Phish sound that developed in the early '90s, and many Phish fans will find "Gotta Jibboo" too similar to the sounds of the Grateful Dead. But nonetheless, the band has created another fine album that is certain to please all of the fans already on board, and likely to earn the praise of new ears.