aglasshouse Farmhouse, as many people enjoy in assuming, is the proclaimed "beginning of the end" for Phish. It was the massive turn of the century, and this album landed smack dab on the turning year of 2000. The problem was, Phish was becoming less and less recognized as years went by. So this meant that their country-infused melodic Farmhouse wasn't all good as Phish tried to make it. In a sentence, Phish was running out of steam from their 1990 heyday, and their attempt at a justly excellent release for the new century went slightly spoiled.

In an artful sense, Phish's Farmhouse is indeed unique. It features a lot of interesting compositions, as well as some new dabblings that the band hadn't tried prior. Most of their earlier content, however, had large amounts of progressiveness that was very clearly shown and people could recognize it easily. This album lacks on that front, for although the new tone the band was trying to develop to still be relevant, it isn't in most cases a progressive-rock release. Soft rock combined with lounge-jazz isn't really the best concoction for the progressive man, and this album is full of it.

The band was also trying to delve into the area of meaningful lyrics that actually had a story behind them. Usually, I would highly enjoy something like that, but in this case it seems odd and disjointed mostly because Phish is doing it. Two choice songs that follow this path are the title track, a melodic track that centers around a cliche love-story, and 'Bug', which is obviously the world from the point of an insect that as the Phish website states: "is blissfully simple". And I do give them credit, it sounds like they're having phun (I am so sorry) with their coherently simple song. The other songs are not bad but are very lacking in the area of memorability.

This album is quite something, but that does not make it an essential to a proggian by any means. It holds on loosely to anyone expecting something wonderful, or even something like Phish's past releases. So, if you are interested in Phish, pick up this. I recommend it to that audience.