Rotation

Phish
Farmhouse
Elektra

Farmhouse is Phish’s 11th release. This is significant for two reasons. First, it disabuses the notion that this jam band is merely an entity forever lost on a tour that doesn’t end (you know, always fooling around, never doing anything). Second, those 11 albums have been put out in just 12 years.

This commitment to recording reflects Phish’s willingness to move around within its post-Dead confines. Story of the Ghost (1998) was written and recorded spontaneously in a purposefully limited time frame. Such an idea sounds like the most horrid hippie cliché come to life — just let it roll, brother — yet Phish managed to turn out a piece of work that was not only listenable but entirely compelling.

Two years later Phish holed up in guitarist Trey Anastasio’s Burlington, Vermont, barn for the winter to come up with, uhh, Farmhouse. So much for zany hippie names.

The title track leads things off innocently enough, warm and steady, yet unremarkable in every way. From there, however, a number of twists and turns await.

Most of the material on Farmhouse can be divided into three categories: the progressive, the pop-Dead and the sleepy. Good songs exist within each. “Twist,” “Bug” and “First Tube” are all straight-ahead rock pursuits, full of energy and focus but still quirky and earthy enough to remain true to the carefree Phish philosophy. These are songs one could play for the Phish-hater to hook him. Page McConnell’s fresh keyboard work is the tastiest part of this bait.

Then there’s “Back on the Train,” which is even more straightforward than those “rock and roll” cuts, yet possessed of that crystal-clear noodly guitar, mysteriously bouncy rhythm and lyrics about life’s long, strange trip. (Gotta have something to keep the folks in tie-dyes blissful.) It’s an excellent song. Less so are other jam-inspired tracks like “Heavy Things” and “Gotta Jibboo,” which are alternately too clever or too cutesy for anyone who hasn’t subscribed to the Phish phenomenon yet.

Finally, there’s the sleepy: “Dirt” is a striking, downbeat number with sparse instrumentation that perfectly complements a contemplation of the intersection where simplicity and confinement collide. The rest of the downbeat, however, is just plain down.

Farmhouse, as a whole, is more valuable than the sum of these parts. It’s a combination of the band’s various talents arranged in such a way as to let the music flowwwww. Though no new ground is broken, the trip is, all in all, a pleasing 49 minutes.