Phish - A Picture of Nectar

This 1992 effort, Phish's third overall and first for Elektra, represents the peak of their early-period studio records. The full scope of the quartet's artistic vision comes through clearly across a selection of their most enduring songs. They reveal a voracious and sweeping appetite for a large assortment of styles: psychedelic roots rock; heavy, fusion-leaning progressive rock; bluegrass; straight jazz; and even salsa all creep in. The constant and frantic battle between wild imagination, oddball humor, and keen musical chops is mighty compelling, and even their most grandiose, over-the-top, jet-fueled jams are delivered with a disarming wink. --Marc Greilsamer Amazon.com essential recording

Those were the days, huh?

One of Phish's most critically acclaimed albums may not have been their greatest, but proceeded to incorporate more elements into one wildly fun whole, definitely some sort of early year triumph in regards to that incredible high-wire act between pop and progressive tendencies they struggled with forever. Here, the 16 tracks blaze along into a convincing whole with ease. Whatever any melodic excess their instrumental, scale-bustin' ways starts to grate on traditionalists, a huge display of seamless synergistic prowess in multiple genres offsets the intellectual jamming , which I usually love more then anything else to begin with due to the musically enlightened pedigree this supreme unit doth brought to the rock set. A far cry from their stellar, massively extended live adaptations any fan has come to let overshadow their original studio incarnations, enjoy this sweet album of nectar on it's own merit to find one of the more intelligently hip rock experiences of the early 90's which for the most part holds up quite fine indeed. April 18, 2007

Not thiet best studio album

A BUNCH OF SILLY INCONSEQUENTIAL STUFF.
ALL THE BEST SONGS ARE DONE MUCH BETTER ON THE LIVE ALBUMS.

This is Phish's second official, major release studio album (it is thier third, if you count Junta, which was originally only sold at concerts on a cassette tape). It is 60 minutes long, and the sound quality is very good but not excellent.

There are 16 tracks on this disc. But, only 5 of them have any meat to them. The rest is just silly filler in between the real songs.

Phish plays these 5 songs in concert all of the time. They are on many of the Phish live albums. Sometimes, Phish stretches out the songs, and other times they don't. But, all of the live versions I have heard are better than these studio versions.

The album starts out really strong with Llama. Other good tracks are Tweezer and Chalk Dust Torture. Cavern is a good song, but this one is especially so much better done live.

The other tracks are a mixutre of styles. There is a Calypso track, a Latin-rock track and some soft jazz. There is nothing wrong with experimenting with different styles. Many groups have done it successfully all on one album, like Derek Trucks on Make A Joyful Noise, or Frank Zappa on Chunga's Revenge. But, Phish's attempts at all of these styles is rather weak and not very interesting. It reminds me of Pat Boone trying to do rock and roll.

I prefer Phish's later studio albums. I think they just got better as their sound matured. But, I also like the earlier work on Junta and Lawn Boy.

I think that this CD suffers somewhat from the "American Beauty" effect. As with every jam band, Phish's first 2 studio albums, Junta and Lawn Boy were more along the lines of their live shows. Eventually, every Jam band wants to make an American Beauty, the Grateful Dead's first traditional studio album that emphasizes the songs and not the music. I think with most bands it is forced, while for the Dead it was a natural progression. String Cheese Incident just went throught this with the horrible One Step Closer. May 5, 2006

Listen up

I have been a huge Phish fan for years now, and in my time listening to them I have always heard about people loving this ablum. This album includes big hits like tweezer, chalk dust torture, etc- and the fact is that it was an average album for phish. In mine and a lot of other peoples opinions- live phish is the way to go; but if your talking studio.. this album was average. I think the highlight songs were: tweezer, llama, chalkdust, guelah papyrus, and stash. I recommend most phish albums in front of this one. March 14, 2006

Smegma Dogmatagram Fishmarket Stew

This is Phish at their best. This is the album that made me a fan. And when I saw them live for the first time, they came out and opened with an instrumental, The Landlady, off Picture O' Nectar, and it was great. They came out and just played, no cutesy-ness, no geeky, absurd, pseudo-momentous lyrics. I always wondered why they couldn't do that more often. When they appeared on the David Letterman show or Saturday Night Live, why not just come out and do a tight instrumental? I think I know why. Because they have to be cool and pick songs that show off that they don't care what the larger public thinks, "we're just playing what we like for ourselves, man." But they should show a little more respect for their fans, some of who, like myself, have attempted to turn other people on to the scene only to be embarrassed by their lame recitals when on the national stage.

Anyway, that first paragraph sounds awfully resentful, I'm off to a bitter start but I'm really trying to say that this is a great album. Of all their studio albums, Picture of Nectar has the highest ratio of cool songs to filler. Songs such as Llama, Cavern, Stash, Landlady, Guelah Papyrus, Chalk Dust Torture, and maybe Tweezer all rank as some of the best studio Phish. As a band, they don't quite live up to the hype and expectations of the hard-core fans. But as musicians, when they had time to write and create together, when they were focused on jamming and musicality over the bombastic flamboyance of their live shows, they were often great. One can make a case for Lawn Boy, which comes in a close second for me, but overall I would say this is the one album to own if you want to appreciate Phish for their songwriting and musicianship.
December 1, 2005

Phish Rules!!!!!

Phish is known primarily as a live band, but this CD shows that they know how to make awesome studio albums to. The album opens with an awesome song: llamas. The song opens with some awesome drumming and then Trey comes in on guitar and Page on the keyboards. Cavern is another great tune. The song Guelah Papyrus has awesome jazzy keyboard jams. Chalk Dust Torture showcases awesome hard rock, with Trey Anastasio's guitar and Mike Gordon's bass taking center stage. Overall the album has influences of everything imaginable. Jazz, funk, latin, and rock are the most prevalent, but the song Poor Heart is really a country song. The lyrics on Picture of Nectar are whimsical, the instrumentals are brilliant, the jams are exciting, the compositions superb. What more could you want? I would reccomend this CD to anyone who likes good music! November 29, 2005

More reviews at Amazon.com ...