Phish - Round Room December 16, 2002 - IGN Entertainment by Conatonc Album Review - Round Room Phish's last studio album, Farmhouse, came out in the Spring of 2000. Their new album, Round Room, was just released this week. Nowadays, two-and-a-half years between albums isn't especially long, but for Phish fans, it probably seemed like a lifetime. A quick bit of history for the uninitiated--Phish started in 1983 and played and toured constantly until October 2000. At that point, the band went on indefinite hiatus, causing considerable concern among their grassroots fanbase, and plenty of inaccurate stories in the mainstream media about the band breaking up. The various members all did side projects during the break, while interest in Phish was kept up by the release of the Live Phish series, 16 (and counting) complete live shows presented in 3 or 4-disc sets. All of which brings us to the present. Phish is returning to life as a band with a New Year's Eve show at Madison Square Garden. In the meantime, we have Round Room, a quickie album recorded over four days in October and rushed into stores in time for Christmas. The story goes that the band got together to start rehearsing, and ended up with an album's worth of new songs. The result is a mixed bag of songs and jams, certainly Phish's rawest, most spontaneous studio effort to date. Hardcore Phishies will be overjoyed by the album, while more casual fans may be left scratching their heads at some of the songs. This album is as close as you can get to the magic of a live Phish concert captured in a studio. The music was recorded with all four members playing together, and four of the twelve songs feature jams that sprawl over the eight-minute mark. The vocals also sound like they were recorded live with the music. Lead singer Trey Anastasio's voice, which in the studio usually sounds great, but can be a little thin live, shows that weakness here. His upper register singing is not as strong as you would expect, and as a group, the harmonies don?t always quite click together. That's not to say they sound bad, they just don't have the polish of a standard album. As for the songs, there are some gems and some clunkers. The opener, "Pebbles and Marbles," is an uptempo song that moves from quiet to loud and hits a big chorus before moving into an extended jam. It works very well and has a lot of energy behind it. The ballad "Anything But Me" is a nice low-key follow-up. The title track, "Round Room," is the first new song by bassist Mike Gordon to appear on a Phish album since 1996, and is one of the highlight of the album. It's a bouncy, singsongy tune with some very nice chord progressions for such a simple-sounding song. The album's other highlight is the ten-minute opus "Walls of the Cave." It begins with a Page McConnell piano solo, and it?s nice to hear him featured for a change. The song is considerably more composed than the other long songs on the album, and hearkens back to Phish classics such as "Guyute" and "Reba," while still presenting something fresh. The rest of the album moves through short ditties ("Mexican Cousin," and "Mock Song"), long jams ("Seven Below," and "Waves'), and slower, more introspective songs ("All of These Dreams," "Thunderhead"). As someone who fits into a normal person?s definition of a hardcore fan (I own all of the studio albums, 7 of the 16 Live Phish releases, and even have some cassette copies of live shows), but would be considered a casual fan by the true hardcore Phish fans (I've only been to 8 live concerts, I don?t own all 16 of the Live Phish releases, and have never taped a show using DAT equipment), my opinion of this album falls somewhere in the middle. It's very good, but not great, and a little more polish would've been welcome. Copyright © 2002 IGN Entertainment