Phish turned 25 last November quietly; after all, they’d been defunct for over four years. So consider their reunion LP, the self-released Joy, a belated birthday party. "Happy happy, oh my friend/Blow out candles once again" sings Trey Anastasio on the nostalgic opener, "Backwards Down the Number Line." It’s the epitome of a Phish song, complete with bouncy country-rock groove, merrily cryptic chorus and immaculately ecstatic guitar solo. And it leads off an unlikely gift: a genuinely great album from a touring phenomenon not known for great albums.
Funny thing about birthdays, though: At a certain point, they become not merely celebrations but occasions for reflection and even regret. The latter elements are what make Joy — despite a fair amount of joyfulness — a deeper trip than most Phish LPs. To a large extent the set reads as The Redemption of Trey Anastasio, who wrote most of the songs with longtime lyricist Tom Marshall. The frontman spent a portion of the band’s hiatus battling addiction and the fallout from a drug arrest, and the lyrics frequently feel confessional. "I was doing the best that I can, I suppose," he sings on the wistful title track, clearly aware that it wasn’t enough. In the lilting "Twenty Years Later," the singer is "still upside-down" after decades of recklessness. And on the I-will-survive rocker "Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan" — in a couplet sure to launch a thousand Facebook status updates — Anastasio declares, "Got a blank space where my mind should be/Got a Clif Bar and some cold green tea." He sounds more exhausted than enlightened.
Yet the music feels anything but beaten. The set reunites Phish with Steve Lillywhite, who produced 1996’s Billy Breathes (their best studio set until now), and he perfectly balances studio detailing with the band’s live whoosh. The playing is marvelously at ease and in sync. Bassist Mike Gordon, like kindred spirits Phil Lesh and John Entwistle, sets up rubbery countermelodies inside the grooves. Page McConnell’s piano arpeggios swarm like fireflies; drummer Jon Fishman keeps the rhythms shifting, light and playful. And Anastasio plays his balls off, spinning a sweet Caribbean melody on the metareggae "Sugar Shack" and ripping out raw blues licks on "Kill Devil Falls," a boogie-till-you-puke number whose title works as a metaphor for overindulgence ("Just got back from Kill Devil Falls/Draped my waterlogged clothes in the hall"). The double-cresting solo of "Backwards Down the Number Line," which bows to Jerry Garcia, is a strong contender for Anastasio’s sweetest studio moment ever.
Even on the multipart, 13-minute "Time Turns Elastic" — Phish’s own "Terrapin Station" — there’s none of the overreaching that’s undercut the band’s past work. Overall, Joy seems less about ambition than about generosity — specifically to the group’s devoted fans. As Anastasio pledges on the title track, "We want you to be happy, ’cause this is your song too."
If you can’t enjoy Joy, you will probably never enjoy Phish. Yet, to paraphrase a vintage Phish song, what’s most impressive here is how much they seem to be enjoying themselves — truly, deeply, gratefully. It’s nice to have them back.
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WILL HERMES
(Posted: Sep 8, 2009)