A PICTURE OF NECTAR

While most fans of Phish on this site, I have noticed, reguard their debut album Junta as Phish's best effort. I disagree. Not to say Junta is bad, it's just that A Picture of Nectar is so magnificant that it just surpasses Junta in every way. If you are in any way familiar with Phish's live shows, you'll realize that many of Phish's most noted live song/jams appear on this album:

"Llama" starts off the album with a bang, a frenzy of drums, skillful guitar strumming, and atmospheric organ.

"Stash" is eerily complex, employing complicated scales and skittering jazz rhythms to create a sense of unease. The musical interlude/break is evocative and catchy, not a bad thing at all as some prog fans seem to believe. Besides perhaps "You Enjoy Myself," this is Phish's best song.

"Tweezer" and "Tweezer Reprise" are excellent jam songs with satisfying riffage and underlying piano flourishes. The Reprise is brief, but has some excellent piano and guitar interplay.

"Chalk Dust Torture" can be described just like "Tweezer." It's the weakest song on the album in my opinion, but isn't all that bad.

"The Landlady" is basically a 3 minue guitar solo, but since Trey Anastasio is playing it, it is so catchy, not to mention incredibly good, that you will love it anyway. It's a bit like Zappa's "Sheik Yerbouti Tengo," only better.

Except for the mock-country "Poor Old Heart," the rest of the album is a mix of pleasant interludes ("Eliza" "Manteca" "Faht" "Catapult") and lazy (in a good way) jams ("Cavern" "Guelah Papyrus" "Glide" "Magilla" "The Mango Song.") Back to "Poor Heart," I hate country music, but this parody is so chiche-filled that i can actually enjoy most of it.

The only reason why I didn't give this album 5 stars is because it doesn't have many prog elements to it. And most of those that it has are in "Stash."

If you're a fan of Phish, get it. If you kind of like Phish, download or burn it." If you don't like Phish, why are you reading this? ;)