After two days of not making it to any store respectable enough to carry the new Page McConnell CD before it closed, I finally managed to snag a copy. My first impression was actually something to the effect of "I bought the right CD, right?" Something about Page's voice just sounded too artificial to me on "Beauty of a Broken Heart" as well as "Heavy Rotation" (with Mike Gordon on bass). Don't get me wrong; the musical arrangements on the CD are fantastic, and as I continued listening, the album slowly but surely grew on me, but I had a really hard time with the album at first.
Then I had a reality check:
First, Page's new album was not intended to be a greatest hits of my favorite Phish songs that have Page on vocals. Second, it's a studio album!
Once I realized that my main complaint with the album (other than the absence of three particular characters of note) was the vocals, and that my main complaint with the Page's vocals was that he didn't sound as good as he did live, my mood changed almost instantly. I think that the majority of the tracks on this CD lay down a great basis for some really great live performances. I'm confident that, in the same way that Phish's studio albums were eclipsed by their live performances, Page McConnell's pretty good CD will be eclipsed by amazing shows.
Here's a Jambase interview with the Chairman of the Boards, though not quite as good as Hidden Track's Page interview earlier this week.
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