Phish

After a five-year layoff, Phish teams up with producer Steve Lillywhite and records its best album since A Picture of Nectar. Joy dispels two myths about these jam-band gods: that they're all about live shows, and that their songs are all hippie tunes with silly lyrics. Sonically speaking, the record falls somewhere between Floyd's Wish You Were Here and Wake of the Flood-era Dead and documents Trey Anastasio's battle with drugs. The best tune here, "Time Turns Elastic," is also the lead-off single.

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 ecs... More >