•
Rating: Disclaimer: this is my first un-review, so I ask immense pardon for whatever may come from it.
That said, I could start talking about "Undermind", the album by the Phish with which I have decided to debut in the dazzling career of a reviewer that awaits me from here to the end of my days. This means that if I manage to review one album a year, it'll be a miracle.
Before delving into specifics, however, I wish to explain the reasons why I chose this particular album to start my activities: this is not because I want to bore your sensitive spherical gonads, but rather to draft a sort of mini-programmatic manifesto. Okay, this will bore your gonads, but the point is I’m not doing it because of that reason. Thanks for your understanding. I’m enclosing the non-strictly-reviewer part between two lines of underscores for those who want to skip it.
Undermind is an album by a band, Phish, semi-unknown in Italy (and perhaps in Europe, judging by Google) yet famous in the United States, especially for their intense live activity. Undermind is NOT one of their most famous albums, nor one of the most important. Nor, perhaps, one of the most beautiful in an objective sense.
"So why are you still here bothering me?" the attentive reader might ask.
Because it is an album that is, in its own way, perfect for what I mean by music.
Let’s be clear, I am a devourer of musical oddities as well as musical banalities, I like everything and the opposite of everything, and in the same way I hate much and dislike even more. However, there's something beyond the strictly intended genre on which I particularly rely to establish my preferences: the "characteristic" attitude and style of music (which doesn’t always correspond to that of the musician).
Phish, like all my favorite music, is intelligent. Intelligent not in the sense that they can solve quantum physics problems, translate Plato's dialogues without a dictionary, or draft business plans in half an hour. No, Phish are intelligent in their approach, in their way of composing music, in the way they write lyrics, in how they make live performances an essential spectacle in the genre. They are intelligent because they are ironic but not mean, theatrical but not histrionic, disenchanted but not cynical, fun but not clownish, cheerful but not silly, tough but not extreme, sweet but not syrupy, technical but not cold, intimate but not depressed, small but not closed-off, great but not overwhelming and pretentious. In a few words, they are balanced. And despite the normality, they are neither banal nor flat. This is their miracle.
In addition, they almost always have the barometer set to fair weather, which is something reassuring in a musical field often dominated by subjects on the edge (or beyond) of depression, psychological crises, suicides, and so on. This is because Phish make music and entertainment. They don’t reflect society, for better or worse. They will never compose a blatantly political or social song (which, to my taste, is a drawback), but neither will they ever make one ridiculously based on the worst feelings of the human soul (and for me, this is their greatest content strength).
And it is for these reasons that my choice as an un-reviewer has focused on Undermind.
Undermind is a "late" album by Phish, born musically in the '80s and exploded in the following decade. It is a commercial album, without the peaks and experiments of their early albums, without the desire to follow the trend wave of mid-career albums. It's a pop, normal, mediocre album in the best sense of the term. It’s an album that has everything a complete album should have. It is that album for which every pop artist works a lifetime (never reaching it), it is that album that every "serious" rock artist wants to avoid to prove they are tough and pure, distant from music as such and closer to content than to form. And despite all this, it's an album played divinely, but never to impress, only to arrange the songs contained in it as directed by God (so to speak). It’s an album that neither strikes nor drags, yet doesn't bore or disgust. It's an album that everyone can listen to and enjoy because it's made with heart and brain, with soul and ear, but without taking itself too seriously. It's an inspired and professional album.
The tracks are of a clear pop matrix, with numerous and spot-on roots rock, country, bluegrass, world, alternative rock, psychedelia, and progressive inserts. Unlike the more famous albums, the jam vein is more restrained, does not wander off, and is perfectly inserted into the song form context. The sounds are very 70s oriented, with Anastasio’s guitar almost always saturated and "valve-like," warm yet well managed. From a strictly sonic point of view, it’s also worth noting a significant improvement in Anastasio's voice, I’m not sure to what extent due to production and mixing or to the natural refinement and change brought by the subject's advancing age.
It all flows for 51 minutes of pure delight. Not wanting to describe each track one by one, I'll limit myself to pointing out "A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing" (with notable vintage guitar patterns. And what sound. The lo-fi hi-fi...), "Crowd Control" (decidedly poppy, but I challenge anyone not to feel "cheerful" after this tune), "Secret Smile" (divertimento with ethnic-afro-reggae cadences) and the closer "Grind" (an exceptional reinterpretation of American vocal bubble music from the '50s-'60s).
P.S.: In the comments of another review I happened to read that Phish are "too happy." I'm still laughing.
Tracklist and Lyrics
02 Undermind (04:57)
Undecided, undefined
Undisturbed, yet undermind
Relocated, not retired
Reprimanded and rewired
Mystified and mishapen
Misinformed, but not mistaken
Reinvented, redefined
Rearranged, but not refined
Unrelenting, understroked
Undeterred, yet unprovoked
Reinvented, redefined
Rearranged, but not refined
Mystified and mishapen
Misinformed, but not mistaken
Undecided, undefined
Undecided, undefined
Undisturbed, but undermind
Relocated, not retired
Reprimanded and rewired
Mystified and mishapen
Misinformed, but not mistaken
Reinvented, redefined
Rearranged, but not refined
Unrelenting, understroked
Undeterred, yet unprovoked
Undecided, undefined
Undecided, undefined
Undisturbed, but undermind
Relocated, not retired
Reprimanded and rewired
Mystified and mishapen
Misinformed but not mistaken
Reinvented, redefined
Rearranged, but not refined
Unrelenting, understroked
Undeterred, yet unprovoked
Undecided, undefined
Undecided, undefined
Undecided, undefined
Undecided, undefined
Undecided, undefined
Undecided, undefined
Undecided, undefined
Undecided, undefined
Undecided, undefined
03 The Connection (02:25)
When I see the connection
Though I see I don't stare
Though I see I don't stare
When I'm lost in my reflection
Though I see I don't stare
Though I see I don't stare
Then I change my direction
One foot follows the other
One foot follows something new
'Cause I need some protection
And I'm scared I could lose it
If I stare, you'll be gone
When I need some attention
Though I see I don't stare
Though I see I don't stare
When I'm lost in my reflection
Though I see I don't stare
Though I see I don't stare
06 Crowd Control (03:34)
Listen now I'm talking
I've been for weeks
Waiting in this growing crowd
Staring at my feet
The world around me�s turning
I'm just standing still
The time has come for changes
Do something or I will
I'm a feather in a storm
I'm a raindrop in the sea
If I don't get enough of you
I'm a lighter shade of me
Sisters, brothers all around you
There's a devil in the crowd
Meet his eye and it's the end of time
If you're praying don't be loud
It's crowded in the lowlands
But the fools stay on the hill
You control us now
You have the reins
Do something or we will
So show us why we came here
Before we lay on the ground
Give it to us loud and clear
Make the devil turn around
The world around me's turning
I'm just standing still
The time has come for changes
Do something or I will
It's crowded in the lowlands
But the fools stay on the hill
You control us now
You have the reins
Do something or we will
So show us why we came here
Before we lay on the ground
Give it to us loud and clear
Make the devil turn around
The world around me's turning
I'm just standing still
The time has come for changes
Do something or I will
The time has come for changes
do something or I will
The time has come for changes
Do something or I will
09 Two Versions of Me (03:45)
Aaaahhh, oooohhh
Ten mountains stand tall
Nine seasons since fall
Eight eons of sand
Seven oceans began
Now there is none
No more light from the sun
Now waters run free
No more fish in the sea
One more name on the slate
One less minute to wait
Too busy to see
Two versions of me
One more bottle is dry
One less reason to try
One more name on the slate
One less minute to wait
Too busy to see
Two versions of me
One more bottle is dry
One less reason to try
Six feet underneath
Five fingers don't reach
Four seconds it seems
For all of our dreams
Three oceans away
Two children at play
Too busy to see
Two versions of me
Two versions of me
Two versions of me
Two versions of me
10 Access Me (02:38)
The first time I came over I was bitten by your dog
You weren't even there 'cause you were walking in the fog
I call you up and plead and beg and talk to your machine
My friends say not to bother when you're acting pretty mean
But I don't need to botehr you, no I won't play that part
I just want access to the inside of your heart
Access to your thoughts on the way that I should be
So I could start to cvhange and maybe you could access me
Access me
You could tell me all about all the things you did at work
The guy who sits beside you and how he's acting like a jerk
And if you don't have to open up the secrets of your soul
But if that's the place you want me I'd be glad to pay the toll
13 Secret Smile (06:41)
sometimes when the evening's young
the wind dies down, the setting sun
crochets the clouds with yarn so fine
adn fills the oceans with red wine
the trees, the sky, the forest fair
bring a flavor to the air
i raise my glass and in a while
you answer with a secret smile
hold on, hold on to me
an airborne leaf that landed near
has carried Dionysus here
He'll slip away byt only when
he sees our glasses filled again
Loading comments slowly
