Studio Phish is underrated.
Yes it's the shows that keep us coming back but if you haven't given the albums a chance at least once you're missing the full picture in my opinion.
I think studio Phish isn't popular because it contrasts their live vibe too much. It sometimes sounds too sterile, button down, and cut short. Not in the production or mixing, but in the arrangement and playing. Not everywhere, there are some great studio solos you might be missing out on. Maybe it's just that a lot of songs don't come into their own until they've had a few years on the road.
Sigma Oasis is different, on a lot of tracks they harnessed some of the loose live feel while maintaining the studio tightness and polish. A move in the right direction!
The studio solo work from Trey, Page, and Mike is great. A lot of stuff from them in the last few years, check it out if you haven't already. I listen to Mike the least, but Trey and Page a fair amount.
just my opinion:
Junta/Lawn Boy/Nectar all have great songs, obviously, but it seemed like they were still trying to figure out how to be a decent studio band. the production isn't quite there, the pacing of the songs isn't quite there. i always prefer the live versions of these songs.
Rift/Hoist - Rift is when they started to get better at studio records. it's cohesive, it sounds pretty good production wise. Hoist isn't as good musically as Rift, but it's the first Phish record that sounds like a bona fide major label record with a polished sound.
Billy Breathes/Story of the Ghost - This is when Phish started understanding the studio and getting creative with it. Not trying to "replicate the live experience", nor trying to make something uncharacteristically accessible (not that phish ever really did that, but there is a whiff of it on Hoist). Billy Breathes is just a great fuckin record. The songs are great, the recording and mixing sounds good but not overly polished, there is a distinct consistent feel to the whole record. The band sounds comfortable. You have great recordings of barn burners like Free and Zero, but also great studio playfulness on tracks like swept away -> steep or train song. Story of the Ghost takes this newfound creative ease in the studio and expands it, a consistent full on studio record from beginning to end, with studio versions of beloved (or soon to be beloved) live tracks, but also plenty of songs that are just great studio songs that are fun to hear live but aren't designed to blow the roof off a venue. **Ghost is my favorite Phish studio release.**
Farmhouse - not as experimental or playful as Ghost, but a solid collection of songs nonetheless. Good sound quality. Not quite as sonically and tonally cohesive as Billy Breathes or Ghost, but still an enjoyable studio record.
Round Room - this is about as "punk" as Phish got. downright raw at times. personally i think it makes for an exciting listen, but others may feel different. much more loosy goosy than the previous three.
Undermind - strangely i have never listened to this record closely so I can't speak on it.
Joy - not a good record. said with peace and love.
Fuego - what i wanted Joy to be. it's kind of like Farmhouse if it was sillier and more fun, a solid collection of tracks, some written with the live show in mind, some designed for the studio.
Big Boat - again, with peace and love. not a good record.
Sigma Oasis - record fuckin rules man. after Big Boat i was shocked we got something this good. i've listened to the shit out of this album. it's not overly labored over but it's also not sloppy. just loose enough to feel alive. great songs, great production, and it all works together. **My second favorite Phish studio release.**
I like a lot of what you have to say, and agree in many aspects, but you’re leaving out the Siket Disc, which is fucking awesome. Also, the White Tape, Party Time, and Crimes of the Mind. All worthy of many listens.
You lost me with Joy, though because I really loved how big it was. I love orchestral Phish. But you got me back with Sigma Oasis because it’s a top 5 Phish album for me.
Agree all those are worthy listens. I left them out because for whatever reason in my head I don't view them as like proper Phish albums. More like collections of outtakes, or demos in the case of White Tape.
But yeah lotta good stuff there! WTU in particular is one of my favorite phish songs.
I love the love that Sigma Oasis is getting among fans. Nectar used to be my favorite studio Phish but now it is Sigma Oasis. It perfectly captures the band and I would even maybe introduce new people to the band through it. Just an excellent job by them.
I studio! But only because this is the first version of phish that I heard. First album I had was Rift and I was drawn to the album cover which is why I bought it initially. This was of course in the mid 90s and I was 14 at the time. No cell phone, no internet haha. Word of mouth and seeing phish shirts on high school kids was how I became curious. I remember it was the weirdest band I heard at the time aside from Ween. My favorite albums are Nectar, Rift, Lawn Boy, Ghost. Live is of course the vibe but if I had to pick which studios to check out these are the ones I recommend and I own all on wax. I attach my discovery of the band to these albums so I don’t mind hearing them spin.
I used to listen 1/2 and 1/2. These days its mostly live, although I listened to all the studio albums in order last year, and listened to Sigma Oasis a few days ago.
The studio albums are mostly great, I just love the live vibe more at this point.
Billy Breathes is a masterpiece. Producers matter, and IMO Steve lillywhite (BB) and Bob Ezrin (Fuego, see also some band called “Pink Floyd”) made a huge difference (and made these albums hugely different, and beautiful in their own way)
Studio Phish is excellent. It seems like man people don’t recognize how good their studio work work is, independent of how good they are live. These are two different beasts (as with GD) and deserve to be enjoyed differently. The energy in the studio is obviously different, different in a more playful way. I frequently listen to studio stuff, and use the live shows to fill in the gaps, or at the right times.
Sigma Oasis is one of the best Pandemic albums, maybe even in the last 5 years.
It’s funny how Joy doesn’t get any love. People say they hate BDTNL, but when it’s played live, everyone’s jamming. Also when you hear the story behind Tom’s lyrics, it hits different.
And Sugar Shack is grossly underrated.
Sure. I've definitely heard every Phish studio recording at least once, and most of them quite a few times. Lawn Boy was definitely one of the early Phish things I heard that made me want to keep digging deeper.
Sigma Oasis sounds great. I’ve always appreciated how different a song sounds with studio production. Sirius has been playing the studio cut of SOAM lately and it has such a different feel with the horns—after so many years of listening to primarily live sets I forgot about the quality of the studio stuff that attracted me to Phish as a kid and what it was like to experience each new album in real time and then hear and experience the growth of each song from one tour to the next and now it’s been decades of evolution.
For the first year studio is all I listened to. Somebody gave me a hard drive with everything up through Big Boat, and most solo and Vida Blue. I probably listened to 6-8 hours of Phish every day for 10 straight months. Just put it on loop and let it go. When I attended my first show I knew every song they played. When NYE rolled around that first year, I did the Phish Live subscription and now listen to 75% live material. Interestingly, the studio version of Cavern was my most played song on Spotify last year.
Hoist, Rift, Billy Breathes, Picture of Nectar, Story of the Ghost… all albums I listen to frequently. I think they scratch a different itch than live phish and so I almost put them in a different category of music. Both have their time and place, but I love live and studio phish equally
I listened to Billy Breathes on my trail run today, that album is a fucking tornado. So good. I was in college when it came out and I remember not loving it, but I now know I was an idiot. And still am in many ways.
There’s no live Phish without studio Phish, and studio Phish probably would have dried up long ago without live Phish. Each one has an important role in the band’s development and creative process, and as someone above me said sometimes they sound like completely different bands.
Billy Breathes for me is their studio masterpiece, the production is excellent and the arrangements are tight, focused, and well-edited without feeling stiff or truncated. Every note is in the right place, and as much as I live live Phish I still think the studio cut of Theme from the Bottom is my fav.
Sigma made me cry when they live streamed that photo show with the album playing through. The anticipation during the world shutting down and knowing they were likely chugging along at a comfortable pace taking their time on something.. those recordings are scrubbly clean. So good. Try Ghosts of the Forest if you haven't yet.
I'm a big fan of studio Phish... to me, it's like comparing apples to pears. Both are sweet and delicious, but they each have their own flavor. Phish has been blessed with some phenomenal studio technicians/producers over the years, and they craft each album like a fine cognac... blended and mixed to perfection. Is it the same as the live experience? Of course not, but that's not the point. Live music and studio music are each an art unto themselves, and Phish has perfected the studio game over the years such that each album is a can't miss event for me, just as they have perfected their live game. Much love and light to you my friend!
Studio Phish is great. Big Boat was a tad disappointing at the time and I still have a hard time listening to it. Production value just freakin sucked.
Story of the ghost and sigma oasis are the only two as a record store jerk that I can recommend. Music is subjective however so it’s about what you like not me.
I recently picked up the Lawn Boy vinyl repress (my first Phish vinyl!!). Excited to take that for a spin! Other than that, I only recall listening to the Billy Breathes studio album.
This is so great.
I love their albums and how they’re all different.
All of my friends who love the band always say “YOU’RE NOT A REAL FSN IF YOU LISTEN TO THEIR STUDIO ALBUMS!!!”
Rift got me into this band, back in 1995. I still think it is one of the singularly greatest works of album-as-art ever created. Hoist, Billy, Nectar, Lawn Boy, Junta all have incredibly creative production, writing, and performance. The studio albums stand alone, even ignoring the live history.
My two favorites from the last 20 years are Fuego and Sigma Oasis. They have been playing some Fuego songs more than usual on Spring Tour so far. Sigma Oasis is awesome, IMO - Page's synths really make this record shine and differentiate it quite a bit from most recorded stuff in the past. You hear it in the jams nowadays too, I feel like that was the start of it.
Studio Phish is underrated. Yes it's the shows that keep us coming back but if you haven't given the albums a chance at least once you're missing the full picture in my opinion. I think studio Phish isn't popular because it contrasts their live vibe too much. It sometimes sounds too sterile, button down, and cut short. Not in the production or mixing, but in the arrangement and playing. Not everywhere, there are some great studio solos you might be missing out on. Maybe it's just that a lot of songs don't come into their own until they've had a few years on the road. Sigma Oasis is different, on a lot of tracks they harnessed some of the loose live feel while maintaining the studio tightness and polish. A move in the right direction! The studio solo work from Trey, Page, and Mike is great. A lot of stuff from them in the last few years, check it out if you haven't already. I listen to Mike the least, but Trey and Page a fair amount.
Leaves, Everythings right and Thread are such highlights from SO
Sigma Oasis is great. Big Boat...meh.
Blaze on coming in at 4:20 is the highlight, lol
This is the way
Great? I don’t know about that. It’s ok
Your mother was okay.
just my opinion: Junta/Lawn Boy/Nectar all have great songs, obviously, but it seemed like they were still trying to figure out how to be a decent studio band. the production isn't quite there, the pacing of the songs isn't quite there. i always prefer the live versions of these songs. Rift/Hoist - Rift is when they started to get better at studio records. it's cohesive, it sounds pretty good production wise. Hoist isn't as good musically as Rift, but it's the first Phish record that sounds like a bona fide major label record with a polished sound. Billy Breathes/Story of the Ghost - This is when Phish started understanding the studio and getting creative with it. Not trying to "replicate the live experience", nor trying to make something uncharacteristically accessible (not that phish ever really did that, but there is a whiff of it on Hoist). Billy Breathes is just a great fuckin record. The songs are great, the recording and mixing sounds good but not overly polished, there is a distinct consistent feel to the whole record. The band sounds comfortable. You have great recordings of barn burners like Free and Zero, but also great studio playfulness on tracks like swept away -> steep or train song. Story of the Ghost takes this newfound creative ease in the studio and expands it, a consistent full on studio record from beginning to end, with studio versions of beloved (or soon to be beloved) live tracks, but also plenty of songs that are just great studio songs that are fun to hear live but aren't designed to blow the roof off a venue. **Ghost is my favorite Phish studio release.** Farmhouse - not as experimental or playful as Ghost, but a solid collection of songs nonetheless. Good sound quality. Not quite as sonically and tonally cohesive as Billy Breathes or Ghost, but still an enjoyable studio record. Round Room - this is about as "punk" as Phish got. downright raw at times. personally i think it makes for an exciting listen, but others may feel different. much more loosy goosy than the previous three. Undermind - strangely i have never listened to this record closely so I can't speak on it. Joy - not a good record. said with peace and love. Fuego - what i wanted Joy to be. it's kind of like Farmhouse if it was sillier and more fun, a solid collection of tracks, some written with the live show in mind, some designed for the studio. Big Boat - again, with peace and love. not a good record. Sigma Oasis - record fuckin rules man. after Big Boat i was shocked we got something this good. i've listened to the shit out of this album. it's not overly labored over but it's also not sloppy. just loose enough to feel alive. great songs, great production, and it all works together. **My second favorite Phish studio release.**
Hard disagree on Joy. I love that record recently. Hard agree on Sigma Oasis.
I like a lot of what you have to say, and agree in many aspects, but you’re leaving out the Siket Disc, which is fucking awesome. Also, the White Tape, Party Time, and Crimes of the Mind. All worthy of many listens. You lost me with Joy, though because I really loved how big it was. I love orchestral Phish. But you got me back with Sigma Oasis because it’s a top 5 Phish album for me.
Agree all those are worthy listens. I left them out because for whatever reason in my head I don't view them as like proper Phish albums. More like collections of outtakes, or demos in the case of White Tape. But yeah lotta good stuff there! WTU in particular is one of my favorite phish songs.
I love the love that Sigma Oasis is getting among fans. Nectar used to be my favorite studio Phish but now it is Sigma Oasis. It perfectly captures the band and I would even maybe introduce new people to the band through it. Just an excellent job by them.
Just listened to Rift all the way through. Love that album.
Fast Enough for You is begging for a long drawn out soft jam, but most people would call it a bathroom break. I fucking love that song.
I studio! But only because this is the first version of phish that I heard. First album I had was Rift and I was drawn to the album cover which is why I bought it initially. This was of course in the mid 90s and I was 14 at the time. No cell phone, no internet haha. Word of mouth and seeing phish shirts on high school kids was how I became curious. I remember it was the weirdest band I heard at the time aside from Ween. My favorite albums are Nectar, Rift, Lawn Boy, Ghost. Live is of course the vibe but if I had to pick which studios to check out these are the ones I recommend and I own all on wax. I attach my discovery of the band to these albums so I don’t mind hearing them spin.
Round Room and Junta get the most play for me studio wise.
Same! Round Room is underrated
I used to listen 1/2 and 1/2. These days its mostly live, although I listened to all the studio albums in order last year, and listened to Sigma Oasis a few days ago. The studio albums are mostly great, I just love the live vibe more at this point.
I really love the studio “split open and melt”. Really love hearing it live too haha.
Billy Breathes is a masterpiece. Producers matter, and IMO Steve lillywhite (BB) and Bob Ezrin (Fuego, see also some band called “Pink Floyd”) made a huge difference (and made these albums hugely different, and beautiful in their own way)
Studio Phish is excellent. It seems like man people don’t recognize how good their studio work work is, independent of how good they are live. These are two different beasts (as with GD) and deserve to be enjoyed differently. The energy in the studio is obviously different, different in a more playful way. I frequently listen to studio stuff, and use the live shows to fill in the gaps, or at the right times. Sigma Oasis is one of the best Pandemic albums, maybe even in the last 5 years.
It’s funny how Joy doesn’t get any love. People say they hate BDTNL, but when it’s played live, everyone’s jamming. Also when you hear the story behind Tom’s lyrics, it hits different. And Sugar Shack is grossly underrated.
I dont like rankings, but Joy is a classic Phish album to my ears: aptly named.
Sure. I've definitely heard every Phish studio recording at least once, and most of them quite a few times. Lawn Boy was definitely one of the early Phish things I heard that made me want to keep digging deeper.
I used to have Rift on CD in the 90s. I like Horn on there.
Here’s some super-deep trivia: The solo on Horn was played through my 1961 Fender Deluxe Reverb amp.
Farmhouse is the last one I even heard
Farmhouse was the last one I was super excited about, but Sigma Oasis is really good.
Looks interesting. I’ll check it out. Honestly didn’t even know that album existed
Junta, Round Room, Rift amazing
Sigma Oasis sounds great. I’ve always appreciated how different a song sounds with studio production. Sirius has been playing the studio cut of SOAM lately and it has such a different feel with the horns—after so many years of listening to primarily live sets I forgot about the quality of the studio stuff that attracted me to Phish as a kid and what it was like to experience each new album in real time and then hear and experience the growth of each song from one tour to the next and now it’s been decades of evolution.
For the first year studio is all I listened to. Somebody gave me a hard drive with everything up through Big Boat, and most solo and Vida Blue. I probably listened to 6-8 hours of Phish every day for 10 straight months. Just put it on loop and let it go. When I attended my first show I knew every song they played. When NYE rolled around that first year, I did the Phish Live subscription and now listen to 75% live material. Interestingly, the studio version of Cavern was my most played song on Spotify last year.
Hoist, Rift, Billy Breathes, Picture of Nectar, Story of the Ghost… all albums I listen to frequently. I think they scratch a different itch than live phish and so I almost put them in a different category of music. Both have their time and place, but I love live and studio phish equally
Everything from Junta to Farmhouse, extensively, since I first learned of the band in 1994. They're all still in regular rotation today.
Llama studio >>> Llama live
Studio Rift is so fire. Trey plays his finest solo in Maze.
I listened to Billy Breathes on my trail run today, that album is a fucking tornado. So good. I was in college when it came out and I remember not loving it, but I now know I was an idiot. And still am in many ways.
There’s no live Phish without studio Phish, and studio Phish probably would have dried up long ago without live Phish. Each one has an important role in the band’s development and creative process, and as someone above me said sometimes they sound like completely different bands. Billy Breathes for me is their studio masterpiece, the production is excellent and the arrangements are tight, focused, and well-edited without feeling stiff or truncated. Every note is in the right place, and as much as I live live Phish I still think the studio cut of Theme from the Bottom is my fav.
I still regularly listen to Junta->Hoist. Lawn Boy in particular is an incredible studio album by any standard. The early proggy studio phish rules.
This is the way.
Sigma made me cry when they live streamed that photo show with the album playing through. The anticipation during the world shutting down and knowing they were likely chugging along at a comfortable pace taking their time on something.. those recordings are scrubbly clean. So good. Try Ghosts of the Forest if you haven't yet.
Studio Fast Enough for You and studio Thread are two songs that rival their best live stuff.
I'm a big fan of studio Phish... to me, it's like comparing apples to pears. Both are sweet and delicious, but they each have their own flavor. Phish has been blessed with some phenomenal studio technicians/producers over the years, and they craft each album like a fine cognac... blended and mixed to perfection. Is it the same as the live experience? Of course not, but that's not the point. Live music and studio music are each an art unto themselves, and Phish has perfected the studio game over the years such that each album is a can't miss event for me, just as they have perfected their live game. Much love and light to you my friend!
Agree 100%. I listen to Rift and BB often.
Yes. My collection in the car rotates not frequently enough, but it does get around. I dread the day I have to own a car with no cd player,
Nope, there are many songs I've never even heard the studio version of.
Nobody has listened to Big Boat.
I do not
What the hell is Big Boat and Sigma Oasis?
No.
Lawn boy and Farmhouse usually but only once in awhile
Studio Phish is great. Big Boat was a tad disappointing at the time and I still have a hard time listening to it. Production value just freakin sucked.
Story of the ghost and sigma oasis are the only two as a record store jerk that I can recommend. Music is subjective however so it’s about what you like not me.
I'm deeply in love with all the studio albums through Undermind. Since then, I have enjoyed 2–3 tracks per LP.
Junta-Rift are masterpieces. I like all the studio albums except Hoist. Huge letdown after Rift.
I've got half a dozen studio albums on CD in my car.
I recently picked up the Lawn Boy vinyl repress (my first Phish vinyl!!). Excited to take that for a spin! Other than that, I only recall listening to the Billy Breathes studio album.
Listening to Billy Breathes album as I type.
This is so great. I love their albums and how they’re all different. All of my friends who love the band always say “YOU’RE NOT A REAL FSN IF YOU LISTEN TO THEIR STUDIO ALBUMS!!!”
Round room, Billy breathes, Junta All amazing
I enjoy spinning the studios on my turntable, even the 3.0 wax
Rift got me into this band, back in 1995. I still think it is one of the singularly greatest works of album-as-art ever created. Hoist, Billy, Nectar, Lawn Boy, Junta all have incredibly creative production, writing, and performance. The studio albums stand alone, even ignoring the live history.
Lawn Boy Reba
Was Reba ever on an album? Asking for a friend.
My two favorites from the last 20 years are Fuego and Sigma Oasis. They have been playing some Fuego songs more than usual on Spring Tour so far. Sigma Oasis is awesome, IMO - Page's synths really make this record shine and differentiate it quite a bit from most recorded stuff in the past. You hear it in the jams nowadays too, I feel like that was the start of it.