Phish go from stage to studio January 21, 2003 - Observer (Notre Dame) By Ryan Rafferty Album Review - Round Room For anyone who has waited patiently for two years, the wait is over. Phish is back. After a two-year hiatus, Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon, Jon Fishman and Page McConnell are back with their first studio album since 2000's Farmhouse. While on hiatus, the members of Phish treated fans to several solo projects. As only some of these projects panned out some fans wondered if the band had lost its spark to play together. But when Phish returned to their farmhouse studio in Vermont the magic returned. While rehearsing for an upcoming New Year's Eve show the band managed to write 12 new songs and record them in four short days. The result is their latest release, Round Room. The album is roughly 80 minutes long and is by far the most relaxed Phish album to date. Round Room has a very loose and improvisational feel to it, mostly because of the short time in which it was recorded. Fans who have only recently discovered Phish through their latest albums Farmhouse and Story of the Ghost may have a hard time getting a feel for this album because it has many longer jams and is less poppy. Don't let the song length be a disguise though; Round Room doesn't have the intense energy that earlier Phish albums had. Its feel is much more relaxed and mellow. Even Anastasio's normally breakneck speed solos have been tamed, but they still retain their usual musical beauty. By far the best song on the album is "Walls of the Cave." It begins with a typical McConnell piano solo and then enters the chugging rhythms of Fishman's drumming. Anastasio's hypnotic guitar fades in and then he begins to sing Phish's trademark nonsense lyrics about markings on a cave wall. The song then abruptly explodes into a pulsating jam that escalades until the closing moments of the song. Some other standout tracks include "Seven Below," which features a guitar solo reminiscent of earlier Phish classics such as "You Enjoy Myself;" Gordon's bass driven "Round Room;" and the short but sweet "Mexican Cousin." Most songs on the album are very good, but some like "Mock Song" fall apart at the seams. This is probably due to the lack of time the band had to record Round Room. As well, the album has many nonsense lyrics such as "Threshold, skin, fortress, win a life of sin." But this lack of lyrical meaning is not a weakness; it only makes the songs more fun and spontaneous. The songs on this album are very loose and have several long jams that seem like they could go anywhere at any moment. The opening and closing songs are the best example of this. Both songs clock in at over 11 minutes, and have very few lyrics. The opening song, "Pebbles and Marbles," starts off very quietly and then slowly builds into a jam that could have been pulled from any live Phish show. The closing song, "Waves," starts off very differently with the sound of distant waves, which then give way to a very structured jam, but the structure of the song soon melts away into a bass driven jam with Anastasio's guitar lightly picking out random riffs over McConnell's piano. While this may not be their best work, it does bring back memories of classic Phish albums like Junta and A Picture of Nectar, and it is a breath of fresh air in a pop-dominated music scene. This album also captures the band's live sound the best out of all of their studio albums. Round Room is a little more mellow than prior Phish releases, but is still worth a listen if not just for Anastasio's amazing guitar playing. After two years it's great to hear Phish play together and sound so excellent. Hopefully Round Room will encourage the band to be more open and spontaneous on their studio albums. Copyright © 2003 Notre Dame