Trey Anastasio: Trey Anastasio

IF YOU'RE THE DE FACTO LEADER of a band long dismissed by critics, it takes cheek to open your solo debut with a chorus of "Summer's comin' and I'd like a review." Okay, dude, here you go: Trey Anastasio is, against the odds, a pretty rad album. Over a decade plus, Phish varied their set lists endlessly, but their approach remained the same: four smirking virtuosi trading stoner jam jokes with their audience and one another. So you might expect their freed guitar genie to phone in the wank. But instead, with art­boogie ambition, Anastasio deploys a brass-powered eight ­piece band, various guest horn men (including neo-trad jazzman Nicholas Payton), a soul-mama chorus, and a 15-piece orchestra, in arrangements in which his juicy string-bending is just one flavor among many.