Phish typically views studio sessions as opportunities to pull tour-tested material into some semblance of order, so
Round Room represents a marked departure. With twelve new tunes selected from a pool of twenty and recorded in a fistful of days after only a few weeks of practice,
Round Room was intended to be raw, loose and immediately intimate. In another departure, the Vermont-based quartet, which traditionally avoids extended instrumental explorations on studio releases, lets several tracks ebb and flow with a sense of expansive freedom usually reserved for the concert stage.
Round Room reveals four equal partners striving to recapture the simplicity of the band's roots while drawing from nearly twenty years of musical growth, with mixed results. Its vocal leads and harmonies flutter tenuously while Trey Anastasio's guitar and Page McConnell's keyboards compete for the same air, rendering many of Round Room's potentially heavier moments merely heavy-handed. Too often, this album feels like what it is: a hastily assembled rehearsal recording.
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