Trey Anastasio's solo debut is a bit too bland May 2, 2002 - Cornell Daily Sun By Ariel Ronneburger Album Review - Trey Anastasio Insomniacs rejoice; there's finally a solution to your ailment. No, it isn't sleeping pills or counting sheep -- it's Trey Anastasio's new solo album. On his self-titled disc, the Phish frontman serves up 12 tracks that are hard to distinguish from one another, and focus more on lavish, long guitar jams rather than on the songs themselves. "Alive Again" starts off with piano that sounds eerily like something one might overhear in an elevator, and doesn't become any more exciting as Anastasio begins singing, "Quietly you say to me / The time has come for you to be alive again." The chorus then seems to dominate the rest of the song as Anastasio repeats the lines numerous times. Halfway through "Alive Again," the audience is introduced to the horn section that fills up most of the spaces during which Anastasio isn't singing. In "Cayman Review," Anastasio is backed by female vocalists and a guitar track that is similar to that found in many of the other songs on the album. The lyrics, "Shake me up / Shake me down / Shake that thing all over town," also seem rather cliche and meaningless. As in "Alive Again," Anastasio enjoys repeating the same few lines over and over, until he decides to stop singing and instead play a monotonous guitar riff for a few moments before ending the track. The song that best exemplifies this is the seven minute "Push on 'Til The Day," in which the title lyrics are looped several times, until nothing is heard but a tedious horn and guitar jam for the remaining three minutes. Most of Trey Anastasio's "official solo debut" follows the same formula; with trumpets, saxophones, and keyboards accompanying Anastasio, as his mellow vocals often fade into the music or are submerged by the women who sing backup in nearly every song. While this style earned Phish a cult following (and a Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor), Anastasio's endeavor consists of too many tracks that seem drawn-out and dull. The same bass line, seemingly ripped right off of a '70s B-movie soundtrack, also pervades the entire album. "Last Tube" is dominated by it, as is "Mr. Completely." This often makes the songs impossible to differentiate from one another. The peaceful, instrumental "Ray Dawn Balloon" is a welcome change, as Anastasio's solemn guitar is joined by a violin. However, "Ether Sunday" finds the CD ending on much the same note as it began: piano and horns intertwined with Anastasio's sobering voice sometimes hitting notes that are annoyingly high. "Flock of Words" and "Drifting" also find him resorting to this vocal approach. While Anastasio definitely proves that he is a talented musician (the bluesy "Night Speaks to a Woman" displays his ability to let his guitar capture the feel of a late night jam session), the album is often repetitive and bland. Phish fans familiar with long solos that sometimes seem endless will probably enjoy many of the songs, while new listeners may find themselves trying to make some kind of a distinction between a few of the tracks.