Phish's Latest Album Hooks You December 4, 1998 - The Palm Beach Post by Seth Mnookin Album Review - The Story of the Ghost 3 stars The Story of the Ghost is being hailed as Phish's triumphant entry into the mainstream, and rightly so. When the band first came on the scene a decade ago, the Burlington, Vt.-based quartet was written off as a funked-up Grateful Dead clone without the mythology, and with buckets of silly lyrics. Their albums did little to dispel this reputation: Junta, their recorded debut, was filled with 10-minute-plus jams that were short on words and long on guitar wizardry. On The Story of the Ghost, only one of the 14 tracks clocks in at more than five minutes, and six are under three minutes. Remarkably, the band has managed to retain most of its free-spirited adventurousness - from the opening of Ghost, the album's first track, Trey Anastasio's lead guitar lines soar majestically, and drummer Jon Fishman and bassist Mike Gordon have never sounded tighter. More than ever before, Phish harkens back to the great instrumental bands, such as the Meters and Booker T. and the MG's, while retaining their indomitable spirit. One of the album's secrets is that many songs were culled from longer jams - more than half of them fade both in and out. This approach results in a host of (surprisingly) succinct treats: Limb by Limb is a climactic romp anchored by Page McConnell's piano lines and punctuated by Anastasio's always glorious solos, and Shafty is a sly homage to Curtis Mayfield. No Phish album would be complete without one full-blown epic, and here it is Guyute, a eight-minute tale of an ugly pig. It has all the hallmarks of classic Phish: hushed interludes, abrupt key and time changes, and some whistling. It should be enough to satisfy true fanatics, and not too much to turn off people drawn by the tight-as-Saran-Wrap jams. © 1998 Palm Beach Newspaper, Inc