Round Room

Phish | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 10, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B00007B9NJ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (184 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,202 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

After the release of Farmhouse, Phish took a two-year break during which the Vermont jam band released a slew of live albums and splintered into several side projects: Singer-guitarist Trey Anastasio made a solo disc and recorded with Oysterhead, his all-star outfit with former Primus bassist Les Claypool and former Police drummer Stewart Copeland; bassist Mike Gordon collaborated with Leo Kottke and made a movie about Gov't Mule; drummer Jon Fishman made an album with Pork Tornado; and keyboardist Page McConnell released an album as Vida Blue. Despite anxiety that the separation may have disrupted the band's raw chemistry, when the members of Phish regrouped in the studio under the pretense of rehearsing for a New Year's Eve show they walked out with this album four days later. Clocking in just past the 78-minute mark, Round Room is looser and more relaxed than its predecessor. Although stately, spiraling songwriting remains at the fore, there is a charming tossed-off air to Gordon's "Mock Song" ("Penny, thistle, cell phone, blow / Reap what you sow," goes one verse) and Anastasio's "Thunderhead" ("I need a new way to express myself so you don't need to guess"). More encouraging still, the weaving guitars and chugging rhythms mark another step closer to capturing Phish's live prowess on tape. --Aidin Vaziri

Product Description

Japanese edition of 2002 album is scheduled to include one exclusive bonus track TBA. Elektra. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unfinished, December 10, 2002

By 

J. Treworgy (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Round Room (Audio CD)

I received Round Room last Thursday from Phish Dry Goods and have had a chance to listen it through five or six times. It's great to hear the boys back together again, and there is some good stuff on this disc. However, it's a different story than their last three studio efforts. Beginning with "Billy Breathes", Phish really began to use the studio as a tool rather than simply a way to wrap their live concert sound onto an album. This is a good thing: Phish's studio recordings never could match their live concert energy, and given the easy availability of high quality live concert recordings - "the real thing" - why would you want that in a studio album anyway?

"Round Room" is a departure from that approach. Obviously, this stems from the remarkably short timeframe in which this album was created. Traditionally, many of the songs that eventually find their way onto Phish's studio efforts have either been in their concert rotation for months or years, evolving during that time, or been carefully crafted offline. In contrast, much of this album sounds like it's in the formative stages.

In some cases, this works. The title track, "Pebbles and Marbles", and "Waves", are smooth, rich musical textures where the vocals and the instruments almost merge into a tapestry, even if they aren't particularly complex. The title track, "Round Room", is a latin-flavored ditty that grows on you and has unexpected depth on repeated listenings. "Seven Below" is a good jam. A couple songs, particularly "Mexican Cousin", have me reaching for the "skip" button. Most of the rest is somewhere inbetween: some interesting melodies and rhythms; but nothing that feels quite finished. "Walls of the Cave" has potential, but ultimately feels like it's been pieced together from scraps leftover from other songs. This isn't a new idea for Phish, some of their concert classics such as "Fluffhead" and "You Enjoy Myself" are defined by distinct segments. But here, it feels forced: the styles are so different from beginning to end, there's no cohesion. By the time you get to the last segment, you'll think your CD player is playing "Loaded" instead of "Round Room".

What's consistent throughout the whole album, though, is the feeling of being unfinished. Nearly every song starts and ends in such a way that you feel like you've walked in on a jam session. And that's essentially what this album is: a somewhat refined jam session. The result is, it's fun to listen to, and some of it grows on you. But at its best, it never feels much like you're listinening to a finished product, but rather interesting melodies that the band has worked up a little bit.

Ultimately, it should prove to be fascinating as the band begins playing and evolving these songs. But for now, think of "Round Room" as a swim in the primordeal soup of Phish's creative process. Any fan of the band will enjoy this album and I definitely recommend it; I've given it three stars because it's simply not a cohesive album or fully evolved works.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yes., December 12, 2002

By 

Michael Indgin (Westchester, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Round Room (Audio CD)

Do the boys sound excited to be jamming in the same Round Room again, especially on Walls of the Cave? Yes.
Is this album rough and spontaneous-sounding? Yes.
Are some tracks a bit wussy? Yes.
Are Trey's vocals in bad need of overdubbing? Yes.
Would it have been better as an instrumental album? Yes, except for Walls of the Cave.
Are you better off buying any of the LivePhish series first? Yes.
Are the jams excellent and evocative of their live sound? Yes.
Will I buy anything they release because they are still the best band in the land? Yes.
Do I need extras for L.A. and Vegas because I got shut out of mail order? Yes.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As "raw" as it gets, December 10, 2002

By 

T. Laxson (Arizona) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Round Room (Audio CD)

Having been a Phish fan for years, I've come not to expect much of their studio work. They always (since "Rift" at least) seem to be trying to please the college kids who want to listen to them just because it's the cool thing to do. Since most of the world doesn't appreciate a good looooonnnggg meandering jam, Phish doesn't produce them for commercial release. Their last few albums have been nothing more than short, composed versions of their most exploratory material. Their early studio works were nothing more than complex compositions with no room for true "jamming." This album is neither; it's an audacious experiment in pushing the envelope.

Other bands have recorded songs at one setting, without editing, but Round Room was recorded as the band was learning the music; no mixing or dubbing or editing of any kind went into it. They took four days to learn new material that each other had written; they recorded it for the sake of practice; and they released it exactly as it was. That fact alone is worth a five star rating.

Yeah, there are a few "mistakes" on the album. For example, Trey wasn't near his microphone when the chorus to "Pebbles and Marbles" comes in; Mike forgets a few notes here and there; Trey hits a couple of wrong notes; and so on. However, the structure of most of the songs is so complex that any other band would have taken those four days to record only one track that they already knew.

Like I said, the compositions are very layered, but there is still a lot of room for jamming, and the band takes advantage of that jamming space on most of the tracks. For Phish, there is an unusually large amount of ballad-type songs on this album, and they naturally don't explore much on them, but they're nice anyway. The other tracks portray the spirit of Phish more truly than has ever been done before. One cannot describe what that spirit is. Phish's esoteric magic is something that you just get or you don't, there is no in-between.

That said, the highlights of the album are "Pebbles and Marbles," "Waves," "Seven Below," and "Round Room."