Trey Anastasio officially launched his solo career in the spring of 2002 with a self-titled solo album, supporting it with a tour in the summer that reunited him with
Phish, who released an album toward the end of the year, just when
Anastasio played another round of solo shows. It was a busy year for the de facto
Phish leader, and its aftershocks are captured on
Plasma, a double-disc live album that samples from concerts and soundchecks he played with his solo band throughout 2002. Songwise, it's a hodgepodge of new songs, cuts from the solo albums,
Phish tunes, and a cover of
Bob Marley's "Small Axe," so it's less a faithful reproduction of a concert than it is an aural diary of a year, which is probably a better way to represent his music in 2002, since it was a bit of a crazy quilt patchwork. Better that, though, than the lazy, ramshackle nature of
Phish's reunion
Round Room, which sounded far more tossed-off than this. The scattershot nature of this reflects the restless nature of
Anastasio's muse during this time, how he feels alive and engaged when he's working on a sprawling, all-encompassing platform.
Trey Anastasio focused that desire into perfectly realized, crystallized pop songs as sophisticated as
Steely Dan. Here, he blows that tight focus and sharp arrangements wide open, stretching out all these tunes to length of
Phish improvs but, of course, with a ten-piece band in tow. Instead of being overworked and busy, the arrangements breathe and the music sounds livelier than any recent
Phish live record (apart from the archival records, naturally), as well as more adventurous. While it would be inaccurate to say that every second of the 20-plus-minute versions of "Night Speaks to a Woman" and "Inner Tube," along with the 16-minute "Sand," is captivating, they have something equally as important: momentum. These are jams that go places, often very interesting places, and they suggest numerous possibilities for
Anastasio to go in the future. Considering that
Round Room sounded so haphazard, it's nice to have this record out since it functions as a counterpoint to that meandering record, proving that even if
Phish has entered a weird phase,
Anastasio is thriving outside of the group. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine