Reunited Band Should Have Edited Rambling Album December 26, 2002 - The Columbus Dispatch by Curtis Schieber Album Review - Round Room (Elektra): When Phish decided to go on hiatus after the release of Farmhouse in 2000, its members said they had little idea when the band would reunite and what it would sound like when it did. When reconvening this year, the quartet rehearsed for a few weeks and recorded 20 songs-in-progress. The results were so inspired, the band has said, that it decided to release 14 of the songs as they were. Round Room vacillates between tunes that sound like jammed-out demos (Friday) and others that are ordinary in their simplicity (Anything but Me). Most could have benefited from more work. A few selections, however, are as advertised: performances of new material that resound in their passion and sparkle with fresh spirit. Pebbles and Marbles, which opens the album with 11 1/2 minutes ranging from dreamy exposition to psychedelic fury, is roughly recorded but passionately played. At its best, the album agrees with the band's assertion that fresh and spontaneous is good -- but suggests a little editing may have been in order to make 78 minutes a more consistently interesting 40. Copyright © 2002 The Columbus Dispatch