Phish - Farmhouse May 15, 2000 - VH1 by Staff Album Review - Farmhouse With their eighth studio release, Phish finally give their notoriously hippied-out fans something to be stoned about. Closest to 1996's Billy Breathes in its simple and reflective tenor, Farmhouse requires frequent mental lapses to be tolerated in its entirety. And though its tracks ostensibly run the gamut from Phish's poppiest to most eclectic generic driftings, overproduction is the closest thing to an organizing principle on the album. Farmhouse's best song, also the title and opening track, immediately conjures their song "Free" in the melodic interplay between vocals and instrumentation, even while predictably playing on the band's weed reputation with the double-entendre lyric "I never saw the northern lights." And while we may forgive this obvious thematic shallowness in the face of gorgeous musical subtext - Phish is a jam band, after all - by the third track, "Bug," the simplicity of prominently featured lines like "It doesn't really matter" becomes overbearing. Although Phish has generally been able to hide behind instrumental virtuosity and free-form experimentation, Farmhouse's overproduction - interestingly guitarist Trey Anastasio's first production credit - makes the band's shortcomings painfully obvious. If the album's radio-friendly texture wasn't enough to bring their lyrics to the forefront, Phish's more "philosophical" posturing does the job. Let's just leave the "maturing gracefully" thing to Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach, guys. But it's the trajectory of Phish's studio album quality that truly makes Farmhouse disappointing. Compared to top 40 tripe, or, worse, Carlos Santana's collaborations with R&B performers, the album is certainly tolerable enough. But in light of 1998's equally underwhelming The Story of the Ghost, one might discern the evolution of a pattern. Unless Phish releases something on the order of Lawnboy soon, their live reputation will become their sole musical asset. © 1999 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved.