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A Picture of Nectar

Phish - A Picture of Nectar Audio CD

A fair review of the Phish "A Picture of Nectar" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Phish reviews here, or go back to the Phish tabs.

Band: Phish
Title: A Picture of Nectar
Rating:

Release Date: 1992-02-18
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Llama 2: Eliza 3: Cavern 4: Poor Heart 5: Stash 6: Manteca 7: Guelah Papyrus 8: Magilla 9: Landlady 10: Glide 11: Tweezer 12: The Mango Song 13: Chalk Dust Torture 14: Faht 15: Catapult 16: Tweezer Reprise

A perfect cd for people new to Phish
Somehow it captured their incredible adventerous energy their concerts were known for back then. This was the first Phish album I bought and I still think it's their best studio effort. I got into the band in '93 after hearing 'Cavern' and 'Guellah Papyrus' on the radio. This cd has a good blend of pop, jazz, latin and Zappa like strangeness all wrapped together with superior musicianship and a sense of joy. It doesn't have any major epic songs that the band had built a reputation for like a YEM or a Reba but it's concise song writing and accessibility makes it a very fun album. .

Those were the days, huh?
Here, the 16 tracks blaze along into a convincing whole with ease. 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. Whenever 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. .

Not thiet best studio album

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

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.

Listen up
This album includes big hits like tweezer, chalk dust torture, etc- and the fact is that it was an average album for phish. 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. 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. .

Smegma Dogmatagram Fishmarket Stew
This is the album that made me a fan. This is Phish at their best. 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.
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