Trey Anastasio, Trey Anastasio May 28, 2002 - Mode Weekly by Staff Album Review - Trey Anastasio With his self-titled Elektra debut, Trey Anastasio has once again proved that he is perhaps the brightest musical star in the post-rock ’n’ roll galaxy. It wasn’t enough that he was in one of America’s top grossing touring bands, Phish, for seventeen years. That group was able to learn entire cover albums during a single setbreak (Dark Side of The Moon), play all night seven-hour sets (12/31/99), and rip two sets of entirely different music every night. Anastasio had to put Phish on hold so he could find time to write a symphony, perform with an orchestra, record and tour with a supergroup featuring members of Primus and The Police (Oysterhead), and headline full-scale spring and summer tours as a solo artist. And that was his year off. Anastasio waltzes into Spring 2002 with a solo album loaded with twelve tunes of sweeping beauty and graceful melodies, in advance of a national solo tour with his nine-piece back-up band. Trey Anastasio begins with a catchy, summertime anthem ("Alive Again") and ends inconspicuously with the mellow "Ether Sunday." Sandwiched in between are tunes that range from cow funk to rural dixie. A staple of last year’s live shows, "Money, Love and Change" was cleverly rearranged in the studio, with the vocal tracks layered over what was previously the jam section. "At The Barbeque" is an unexpected etude that evokes Dixieland jazz and the image that is the song’s namesake. The album’s showpiece, "Last Tube," is a woven mosaic of live and studio tracks, pieced together in a rocking 13 minutes of liberating fist-pumping glory. Most of the tunes have been road tested and are already familiar to Anastasio’s famously devoted fans, with the exception of the Steely Dan-ish "Night Speaks To A Woman." All of the songs, however, get a tune-up in the studio, by means of added instrumentation, back-up singers, and subtle tinkering. It is both spontaneous and laboriously well planned. The songs are simple, yet intrinsically complex. The result is an ambitious album that, perhaps unbelievably, achieves its objective. By all accounts, Trey Anastasio is a masterpiece.