Review by Ted Kartzman
Farmhouse
Phish
Elektra/Asylum
Produced by: Bryce Goggin & Trey Anastasio
Recorded and Mixed by: John Siket
Asst. Engineeer: Pete Carini
Additional musicians:
Let me be honest with you. Reading the tracklist last week, I really wasn't expecting Phish to turn in a groundbreaking performance with Farmhouse. It looked like a lot of recycled material. Nothing really new or groundbreaking list-wise, this album might well be titled 'Half Of Trey Solo Tour'.
But that fear was finally swept away ten minutes into listening to Farmhouse. Phish continues to add new tricks to old dogs. Songs like "Twist" and "Piper" have been around since mid-1997, I can't believe how excited I was at the reworked vocal intro of "Twist"!
Phish has created a masterpiece that the hard cores and first timers can both appreciate equally. I can't find the chink in Farmhouse's armor, and I consider myself a "worst album ever" type.
The first single, "Heavy Things," remains as catchy today as it did the first time of the 24 times it was played between Trey's solo and Phish tours during 1999. They add a new vocal reprise to the end of "Heavy Things", and also rework the vocals at the end of the title track, keeping this album fresh for the diehards that think they know it all.
And the supplemental musicians add tremendous flavor and depth! Adding a string quartet to "Dirt" brings out the dramatic beauty that can not be reached in front of twenty thousand people no matter how sweetly the whistling is whistled. Trey's "Jibboo" guitar licks are mimiced beautifully by Jennifer Hartswick's trumpet. The brass work of Dave Grippo, James Harvey, and Andy Moroz on trombone really adds flavor to "Jibboo"; slicing through the chorus with subtle ease, this truly is ice cream for the ears. "Jibboo" is just one of the songs on Farmhouse where Phish slides effortlessly in and out of live Phish mode, here subdivided by an echoing crash cymbal that resonates from one ear to the other.
A similar effect occurs in Piper, which smoothly launches right after the chorus, raging like the middle of set two barely two and a half minutes into the song. "The Inlaw Josey Wales", featuring Bela Fleck & Jerry Douglas, is silent and sweet, but its best effect is as an outro into "Sand" - easily the gem of Farmhouse, and the defining song of Phish's sound at the turn of the century. The "Sand" is what you play your trance and Bisco-loving friends to let them know that Phish has not gotten stale, and they are keeping pace with the times. "If this is the new direction of Phish" said one hip indie-rock type in our office, "I might start paying attention." I hope the digital underground catches wind of "Sand" specifically, for it has incredible remix potential, especially since the lyrics have a shifty subtle vocal effect to them.
And there is no shortage of Trey's signature guitar licks on Farmhouse. While the best hooks are usually held in check by three to five minute songs. You hear Trey's different signature tones rear its head in every song. The simple beauty of "Bug" is eerily reminiscent of the basic chord structure of "Oh! Sweet Nuthin" but with a more experienced and thoughtful religious questioning than "Lifebuoy" ever provided. "Bug," along with "Jibboo," "Sand," "Heavy Things," and "Farmhouse" really radio potential, especially if Elektra butters up the radio programmers at the Radio City concerts like the most recent issue of Billboard seems to allude to...
One thing that is interesting to note about the album is that the rest of the band didn't get any writing credits. At least Russ and Tony got some partial credit for the songs that they helped shape some during Trey in May Tour last year.
Farmhouse is kind of like listening to a Pavement album, stylistically. After two or three listens, you're hearing things pop out of dark corners and scare and excite you simultaneously. The production of this album is at the next level. Bryce Goggin (Pavement, Spacehog, Chavez, Lemonheads) and Trey produced Farmhouse and their two heads were better than one. If Goggin helped create Pavement's sonically pristine Brighten the Corners, he can only be encouraging Trey to fiddle with the knobs and the loops. They were determined to fit all that digital noise into a fifty-two minute package; kind of like doing the border of the puzzle first and carefully placing the inside pieces to make them fit perfectly.
Farmhouse was engineered by John Siket (Yo La Tengo, Sonic Youth), who has had a relationship with Phish for four years now, since helping engineer "The Blob" that became Billy Breathes. Siket also helped Ghost achieve that flow, but whereas Ghost gave you fragments of what Phish can be live, Farmhouse gives you actual moments.
Always getting the last laugh, they seem to sneak a vacuum (among every toy, loop and noise in Trey's bag of tricks) into the superb Sand before closing the album with the buildup, explosion and oozing drip down of "First Tube". Best album ending ever, as some collectors would say! ;-)
Expect Farmhouse to go bigger than you think. We'll find out on May 16.
-TK
Track Listing:
1 Farmhouse
2 Twist
3 Bug
4 Get Back On the Train
5 Heavy Things
6 Gotta Jibboo
7 Dirt
8 Piper
9 Sleep
10 The Inlaw Josey Wales
11 Sand
12 First Tube