Trey Anastasio's solo debut could be so much more May 31, 2002 - Chicago Daily Herald by Mark Guarino Album Review - Trey Anastasio Trey Anastasio didn't pare down after retreating from Phish fandom two years ago, he bulked up. This solo debut (his first post-Phish appearance was as a team player in the trio Oysterhead) boasts an eight-member band plus a multitude of horn players, a string quartet, a 15-piece orchestra and many backup singers. The gorging is bound to please the Phish multitudes, a group ready for excessiveness as long as it has a good groove worth wiggling with. And Anastasio is a generous provider - a majority of this 12-track album is based in improvisational funk, culminating in the 11-minute "Last Tube." The performances, however, lack a thrill factor. They sound more schooled in academic fundamentals than transcendence and Anastasio - as dedicated as he is to live performing - is not a soulful singer or an emotionally expressive guitarist. Even a song titled "Night Speaks To a Woman," with its churlish backup singers and menacing guitar licks, fails to get its hands dirty. It has the chance to be the great lost track from "Exile on Main Street," but settles for the overbite of Bob Weir. The nicest surprises of this album are its two instrumentals. Anastasio proves to be a deft arranger, weaving together orchestral music, mournful horns and his own thicket of guitars into elegant pop the Beatles once defined. Trey Anastasio performs at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago Thursday. See Concert picks for details.