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Phish: Joy

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Jemp Records
Released: 2009.09.08
Time:
 53:29
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): Steve Lillywhite
Rating: ********.. (8/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.phish.com
Appears with: Trey Anastasio
Purchase date: 2010.01.21
Price in €: 17,99





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Backwards Down the Number Line (T.Anastasio/T.Marshall) - 5:37
[2] Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan (T.Anastasio/T.Marshall) - 4:40
[3] Joy (T.Anastasio/T.Marshall) - 4:24
[4] Sugar Shack (M.Gordon) - 4:03
[5] Ocelot (T.Anastasio/T.Marshall) - 3:35
[6] Kill Devil Falls (T.Anastasio/T.Marshall) - 5:28
[7] Light (T.Anastasio/T.Marshall) - 5:03
[8] I Been Around (P.McConnell) - 1:57
[9] Time Turns Elastic (T.Anastasio) - 13:29
[10] Twenty Years Later (T.Anastasio/T.Marshall) - 5:09

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Trey Anastasio - Guitar, Vocals
Jonathan Fishman - Drums, Vocals
Page McConnell - Keyboards, Vocals
Mike Gordon - Bass, Vocals

Steve Lillywhite - Producer, Mixing
CJ Eiriksson - Engineer, Mixing
Jesse Gladstone - Assistant Mixing
Ben Collett - Add. Engineering on [5]
Gavin Lurssen - Mastering
Reuben Cohen - Assistant Mastering
Coran Capshaw - Management
Jason Colton - Management
Danny Clinch - Photography
Matt Taylor - Art Direction, Illustrations

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2009 CD Jemp Records 1049
2009 LP Ato /Red 1051

2009 studio album from the reformed band led by guitarist extraordinaire Trey Anastasio. The album was produced by Steve Lillywhite and was recorded in New York's Chung King Studios. Many of the album's 10 songs have already been road-tested during the band's reunion tour and retain their fresh, live feel on the studio recordings. The album is already being called the band's best ever studio release.



Rolling Stone (p.96) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[W]hat's most impressive here is how much they seem to be enjoying themselves -- truly, deeply, gratefully. It's nice to have them back."

Entertainment Weekly (p.65) - "[T]he band sticks to their strengths, making for a welcome return." -- Grade: B



After listening to JOY, one has to wonder whether hardcore Phish-heads, who've stuck with the band through thick and thin and bought literally millions of concert tickets, will be impressed by their 11th studio album. It is the group's first studio outing in five years - a reunion album. Joy was produced by Steve Lillywhite, who also helmed 1996's BILLY BREATHES. He's familiar enough with Phish to be able to get inside their sound, and to try to challenge their preconceptions without tinkering too much with the process of creation. In the end, JOY sounds like Phish are thrilled to have a second chance and feel no pressure to do anything but make music on their own terms. They sound more focused than on any of their ten previous studio offerings. So, as reunion sets go, this one is a winner.

cduniverse.com



After listening to Joy, one has to wonder whether hardcore Phish-heads, who've stuck with the band through thick and thin and bought literally millions of concert tickets, will be impressed by the band's 11th studio album. It is the group's first studio outing in five years -- a reunion album. You can ask, but Phish fans almost always prefer their live shows and albums to the studio dates (echoing of course, the first legendary jam band, the Grateful Dead). The answer? Maybe. Joy was produced by Steve Lillywhite, who also helmed 1996's Billy Breathes. He's familiar enough with Phish to be able to get inside their sound, and to try to challenge their preconceptions without tinkering too much with the process of creation. Apparently, he's also a slave driver. The reason? The labyrinthine track "Time Turns Elastic," which clocks in at over 13 minutes, took 278 takes! The tune, easily the best thing here, is far more a constructed prog rock opus than jam journey. The band - guitaristTrey Anastasio, keyboardist Page McConnell, drummer Jon Fishman, and bassist Mike Gordon - recorded live in the studio, so it took some time. The track was originally constructed as a full orchestral suite (and indeed will be performed with the New York Philharmonic at selected concerts). The reason the track works so well is that despite its many twists and turns musically, it keeps its various song forms, even as they flow into one another. Anastasio wrote it with poet/lyricist Tom Marshall. Gordon contributes a rather weighty reggae-jazz tune in "Sugar Shack" - some might say it's heavy-handed, but the tune itself is simple and catchy, so it works.

"Backwards Down the Number Line," which opens the set, is one of the more straightforward things Anastasio has written with Marshall, and reflects on gratitude despite the messes and sorrows in his life - much of the album is about his long struggle with dope and his sister Kristy passing away from cancer (check "Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan"). "Ocelot" could have been a Grateful Dead track; it contains all the legendary band's tropes, from vocal harmonies to a strolling country shuffle song structure to Anastasio aping Jerry Garcia's guitar tone on the solo. At the end of the tune Phish add a lyrical and melodic nod to the Beatles' "Dear Prudence." There is a straight-ahead rockin' boogie number in "Kill Devil Falls," an interesting take on recovery. The title track, also written by Anastasio and Marshall, is simply beautiful. It begins as a shimmering ballad, sparsely arranged, and becomes a straightforward rock song, but being Phish, there are a few left turns in the mix. Joy sounds like Phish are thrilled to have a second chance and feel no pressure to do anything but make music on their own terms - it is issued independently on the band's own JEMP imprint. They sound more focused than on any of their ten previous studio offerings. Certainly, what's here is not for everybody, but this jumpy, well-constructed little set may even get Phish fans excited. As reunion sets go, this one is a winner. [A pair of deluxe editions of Joy have also been released. One is called Joy Box and includes a 180-gram LP version along with the CD; a Super Deluxe Joy Box includes a DVD, a hardbound book, and a complete second album called Party Time in the bundle. These are only available from the band's website.]

Thom Jurek - All Music Guide



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.

WILL HERMES - Sep 8, 2009
RollingStone.com
 

 L y r i c s


Backwards Down The Number Line

Happy happy oh my friend
Blow out candles once again
Leave the presents all inside
Take my hand and let's take a ride

Backwards down the number line
You were eight and I was nine
Do you know what happened then
Do you know why we're still friends

Laughing all these many years
We've pushed through hardships tasted tears
We made a promise one to keep
I can still recite it in my sleep

Every time a birthday comes
Call your friend and sing a song
Or whisper it in to his ears
Or write it down just don't miss a year

You decide what it contains
How long it goes
But this remains
The only rule is it begins
Happy happy oh my friend

You decide what it contains
How long it goes
But this remains
The only rule is it begins

And all my friends come
Backwards down the number line

All my friends come
Backwards down the number line

All my friends come
Backwards down the number line

All my friends

You decide what it contains
How long it goes
But this remains
The only rule is it begins
Happy happy oh my friend

You decide what it contains
How long it goes
But this remains
The only rule is it begins

And all my friends come
Backwards down the number line


Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan

Got a blank space where my mind should be
Got a cliff bar and some cold green tea
Got clouds that seem to follow me
Got strange demands piled up on me

Got memories, got memories
Got memories, memories of being free

Gonna steal time from the faulty plan
Gonna act as though I'm still a man
Gonna give you one last chance to see
Gonna shrug demands off of me

Gonna dream, gonna dream, gonna dream
Gonna dream, dream of being free

Gonna steal time from the faulty plan
Steal time from the faulty plan
Gonna steal time from the faulty plan
Steal time from the faulty plan

Got a blank space where my mind should be
Got a blank space where my mind should be
Got a blank space where my mind should be
Got a blank space where my mind should be

Gonna steal time from the faulty plan
Steal time from the faulty plan
Gonna steal time from the faulty plan
Steal time from the faulty plan

Got a blank space where my mind should be
Got a blank space where my mind should be
Got a blank space where my mind should be
Got a blank space where my mind should be

Got a blank space where my mind should be
Got a blank space where my mind should be


Joy

Joy is over there in her incredible clothes
She has silver silk shimmering down to her toes
I was doing the best that I can, I suppose
But that little girl dancer eventually grows, she grows

You can't imagine all the times that I tried
To uncover the source of the tears that you cried
Let's throw it away and just go for a ride
And you'd say okay but you'd keep it inside
And I tried, I tried, I tried, I tried

We want you to be happy, don't live inside the gloom
We want you to be happy, come step outside your room
We want you to be happy 'cause this is your song too

I never thought I could have it so good
You were the song that my soul understood
That time is a river that flows through the woods
And it led us to places we both understood
Would be gone before too long, would be gone before too long

When we were young we thought life was a game
But then somebody leaves you and you're never the same
All of the places and people belong to the puzzle
But one of the pieces is gone and it's you
It's you, it's you, Joy, it's you

We want you to be happy, don't live inside the gloom
We want you to be happy, come step outside your room
We want you to be happy 'cause this is your song too

In time we'll weather this storm inside together
You'll see the change when the sun shines through

We want you to be happy, don't live inside the gloom
We want you to be happy, come step outside your room
We want you to be happy 'cause this is your song too

This is your song too, this is your song too
This is your song too, this is your song too
This is your song too


Sugar Shack

Standing on the edge of the cliff, I start to slip
Don't mind if I slide off
Now I feel my mood starts to lift, I find my grip
And the screaming fades away below

I grab myself and spin me around, I start to sprint
I climb down to steadier ground
If I can bushwhack it on back to the shack behind those hills
I'll find the world is finally still

Run through pale dark woods to that sugar shack
Breathe warm steam and hide in that old sugar shack

Boiling heat, maple steam, frozen snow, then it flows
When you leave your maple dream wait till spring to go again

A mosaic of lies I tried to arrange in ways that shelter the blame
I thought I might have made off clear with all of the loot
I plucked and ate all the fruit

Then I started hearing the yells and shattering plates
Drowned out by your slithering stares
I was followed and chased and caught and tied up
By the hay right until I made my escape

Run through pale dark woods to that sugar shack
Breathe warm steam and hide in that old sugar shack


Ocelot

Ocelot, ocelot, where have you gone?
Morning is over and new slouch is on
Your stripes could all fade in the poisonous day
When you see the sunlight, move out of the way

You prance with the beast you berate every night
And silently slouch through the forest by light
Don't be the only one left on the block
Come hide in the herd and float with the flock

Ocelot, ocelot, where are you now?
You never listen to me anyhow
You wandered and ambled, you walk, now you run
Knowing you'll bake like a snake in the sun

You prance with the beast you berate every night
And silently slouch through the forest by light
Don't be the only one left on the block
Come hide in the herd and float with the flock

You prance with the beast you berate every night
And silently slouch through the forest by light
Don't be the only one left on the block
Come hide in the herd and float with the flock

Ocelot, ocelot, where are you now?
(Won't you come out to play?)
Ocelot, ocelot, where are you now?
(Won't you come out to play?)

Ocelot, ocelot, where are you now?
(Won't you come out to play?)
Ocelot, ocelot, where are you now?
(Won't you come out to play?)


Kill Devil Falls

Just got back from Kill Devil Falls
Draped my water logged clothes in the hall
Reach for a beer, glad that I'm here
When I realize that you're not around

Turned on some music and then the TV
Go through the pile of mail waiting for me
Something I spy makes me pull it aside
A letter from your hometown

How could you leave me? You heard what I said
I'll be at the waterfall clearing my head
Soaking up nature and thinking of you
But leaving's the last thing I thought you would do

I didn't plan to stop at the bar but Kill Devil Falls is really so far
Who knew a day would turn into a week
But I learned my lesson and can still remember the last one
But this time will be different until I do it again

Stared at the ceiling for over a day
But none of my questions are answered this way
Won't make any calls, I'll just bounce off the walls
Till I go back to Kill Devil Falls

How could you leave me? You heard what I said
I'll be at the waterfall clearing my head
Soaking up nature and thinking of you
But leaving's the last thing I thought you would do

I didn't plan to stop at the bar but Kill Devil Falls is really so far
Who knew a day would turn into a week
But I learned my lesson and yes, I still remember the last one
This time will be different, this time will be different

And I stand at the base of the mountain, don't follow me
And I step right up to the cliff side, gotta learn how to leap
And I stare straight into the future, tell me what do you see?
This time's gonna be different

Oh, oh, oh
Don't go back to Kill Devil Falls
Oh, oh, whoa
Don't go back to Kill Devil Falls

Oh, oh, whoa
Don't go back to Kill Devil Falls
Oh, oh

I learned my lesson and I can still remember the last one
But this time will be different

Don't go back to Kill Devil Falls
Don't go back to Kill Devil Falls
Don't go back to Kill Devil Falls
Don't go back to Kill Devil Falls
Don't go back to Kill Devil Falls

Don't go back to Kill Devil Falls
Don't go back to Kill Devil Falls
Don't go back to Kill Devil Falls


Light

I can see the light between me and my mind
I can feel memories fall behind
And the light is growing brighter now
And the light is growing brighter now

I see the future is less and less there
And the past has vanished in the air
And I'm left in the now with a wondrous glow
I think I'm still me but how would you know?

I can see the light between me and my mind
I can feel memories fall behind
And the light is growing brighter now
And the light is growing brighter now

It takes a few moments of whirling around
Till your feet finally leave the ground
And fending off fears and heeding the call
And finally waiting for nothing at all

I can see the light between me and my mind
I can feel memories fall behind
And the light is growing brighter now
And the light is growing brighter now

And the light is growing brighter now
And the light is growing brighter now, oh

And the light is growing brighter now
And the light is growing brighter now
And the light is growing brighter now
And the light is growing brighter now

And the light is growing brighter now
And the light is growing brighter now
And the light is growing brighter now
And the light is growing brighter now

And the light is growing brighter now
And the light is growing brighter now
And the light is growing brighter now
And the light is growing brighter now


I Been Around

-Hey! Where've you been?
-Where I've been?

I been around a while...
I lived in town a while...
I threw it down a while...
And the town threw down on me

(still here)
(oh yeah)

I been around a while
I lived in town a while
I threw it down a while
And the town threw down -

I been around a while
I lived in town a while
I threw it down a while
And the town threw down on
Me...


Time Turns Elastic

In and out of focus, time turns elastic
In and out of focus, in and out of focus, time turns elastic
In and out of focus, in and out of focus, time turns

And when I stay too long, I went outside and stared
Arms outstretched and long, moved straight across the sky
(In and out of focus, in and out of focus)

If I could wrap my arms around this globe
Hands, touch the green and brown
I'd sink into the cool, cool ground
(In and out of focus, in and out of focus)

Seen all, seen all, seen all summer
Seen all, seen all, seen all spring

But I'm a submarine, submarine sinks below the ground
A submarine, I'm a submarine, submarine sinks below the ground

Now that the leaves turned to gold
The moments all glow, frozen and free from time
And out here on my own, I watch it ebb and flow

Here with the fire burning low in the honey mist that breathes
Crooked maple fingers trembling all around
I feel the winds that blow

Out here between the dark and light
The summers gone, and the reeds bow down
As the colors change all along the waterline, oh

And when it's time the landslide will free what flows inside
While all around the rocks collide, you finally see the lines
That points towards the light that never dies

Melody, shelter in the darkness take hold of me now
Memory, trapped in a corner, dark fingers are long
But all around, streaming down, rays of blue light calling out

These silver sounds are raining down on me
Here on the wheel the rhythm's turning all around
Up above the dark, it's sky is bleeding
I feel the world turning upside down

These are the reasons that we lay down on the ground
Drawn through the funnel, all the colors run together turning round
Wait for the waves to come and carry me away
Down on the ground the sounds of voices in the echoes seem to say

And as the carousel circles unceasingly
Watch while the ripples decay in this rolling time
In cascading, the wind set the wheels in motion
And it's turning in the mist around

Rolling and turning into the mist around me
Kissed by the water and held in your mother's arms
Green where you tumble and roll in these fields

The shapes of the bodies, a ship in the sun
While the blossoms all scream and it sleeps around me
The earth and these memories yields around me

In and out of focus, time turns elastic, time turns
In and out of focus, time turns elastic, time turns

Touches these woods and these waters all paved with gold
Gleaming in daylight their voices ring on
They're cold while they're pointing, lay down in the storm

And this life is bending and swelling around me
Rolling and turning into the mist around me
The winds all arising in the west around me
And the carousel turns into breath around me

In and out of focus, time turns elastic, time turns
In and out of focus, time turns elastic, time turns
In and out of focus, time turns elastic, time turns
In and out of focus, time turns elastic, time turns


Twenty Years Later

I can hold my breath for a minute or so
Five days without food is as long as I'll go
I didn't sleep once for four days and three nights
I once didn't stop for seven red lights

I jumped into water that's fifty degrees
I've rowed in a kayak in thirty foot seas
I've stayed in the woods for a week with a knife
A flint, when I lost it nearly cost me my life
Twenty years later I'm still upside down

And it's a small world and it's turning real fast
(We're upside down)
It's a new day and the morning has passed
(Turned upside down)

It's a short road but the mountains aren't tall
(Lived upside down)
It's a small world but we all start out small

I've pulled through air though I feel I'm alone
I stick with the others to the skin of the stone
I stop for a stranger just to give him a lift
I cling like a lizard to the side of a cliff

I treat every minute like an hour and then
It seems like a year has just flashed by again
We build a foundation but where do we stand
When all air is water and all water is land?
Twenty years later, I'm still upside down

And it's a small world and it's turning real fast
(We're upside down)
It's a new day but the morning has passed
(Turned upside down)

It's a short road but the mountains aren't tall
(Lived upside down)
It's a small world but we all start out small

Feel it turning in circles
And you're never the same again
Spin slowly while sounds cascade and decay
I'm here upside down

It's a small world but it's turning real fast
(Turned upside down)
It's a new day but the morning has passed
(Here upside down)

It's a short road but the mountains aren't tall
(Lived upside down)
It's a small world and we all start out small

Inside this silence see
All are free, all are free second time around
Inside this silence see
All are free, all are free second time around

Inside this silence see
All are free, all are free second time around
Inside this silence see
All are free, all are free second time around

Inside this silence see
All are free, all are free second time around
Inside this silence see
All are free, all are free second time around

Inside this silence see
All are free, all are free second time around
Inside this silence see
All are free, all are free second time around

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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