New Phish CD has elements found in live performances

Back from the depths of a two-and-a-half year hiatus, the popular jamband Phish emerges with their new album, Round Room. The album lacks typical studio perfection, yet inhabits small nuances that usually only exist in spontaneous live performances. If you listen closely, you can hear Trey get a little choked up and cough in "Friday," and the background harmony he adds in "Mock Song" is a cacophony of nonsensical words. Like at a live show these impulsive or flawed nuances are alluring. Indeed, they're what the band has thrived on in concert for 17 years.

The first track, "Pebbles and Marbles," will be one of the band's live epic crowd pleasers. A catchy riff leads into Trey's soft and melodic voice stretching to the energy-building chorus. The song lasts longer than 11 minutes, complete with a heavy jam from front man Trey Anastasio.

The jam is perhaps a little long, but that only authenticates the live performance effect. There are a number of other bone-grooving tunes like "46 Days," "Walls of the Cave," and the funk-circus song that the band brought in the New Year with, "Seven Below."

Yet not all of the songs are filled with technical and splendid virtuoso. "Anything But Me," "Friday," and "All of These Dreams," to name a few, are hardly danceable numbers. The music is droopy and the pace too slow for its words. After the initial listen, all the songs seem to blend together. In concert, of course, these songs will provide "phans" with a much-needed slow-down reprieve between jams.

Mike Gordon, perhaps the band's weirdest member, inspired the title track with his profound words, My room is round when I lay down/ When I wake up it's square, which suggest the malleability of reality.

Is the band back to stay or will they reshape their anticipated future as well? Only time will tell what is in store for these hippie heroes. The Vermont-based group, consisting of Anastasio (guitar), Gordon (bass), Page McConnell (keyboard), and Jon Fishman (drums) began learning, rehearsing, and recording the new album in a matter of days.

The band claims they are back and ready to go for the long haul. Is this the case, or is it merely a ploy to "piss in the ears of their listeners" (as a Rolling Stone magazine article so blatantly put it) and run with their hippie stash of profit?