I know, I know, let the Grateful Dead analogies go man. But it's hard to deny the similarities in the two bands when it comes to their history with album releases versus their live performances. There's just no comparison and most fans of the two bands see (or rather saw in case of the Dead) the albums as just a launching pad for new ideas to be introduced during the multitude of live performances. Remember, you are talking about fans who go to an average of 5 shows per tour, often back to back. So repetition is not necessarily our thing. 

But repetition and overplayability is what a good album is all about. In 1987 the Grateful Dead had been together for 22 years, released 11 studio albums and toured their, well, asses off. But never had an album, or song, hit the commercial airwaves. But that all changed in 1987. The single, "Touch of Grey", off of their 1987 release, In The Dark, was and is their lone top 40 single. The album went on to achieve double platinum and reached #6 on the billboard 200 chart, making it their only ever top 10 album. There was also this epic video that found itself in regular rotation on MTV.

On June 24th Phish will release their 12th studio album (hey, that's the exact same number as In the Dark), Fuego. It will have been six years since their last studio release, Joy (hey, that's the same as In The Dark). Putting aside these similarities, the big question is will Fuego take hold of the public ear much the same as In The Dark and "Touch of Grey" did for the Dead? 

A quick side note, Phish has actually had two top ten albums on the Billboard 200 (Billy Breathes #7 and Story of the Ghost #8). But no single has made it on the Billboard Hot 100, which is the music industries hottest singles of any genre based on radio play, streams online and sales. The latter is where "Touch of Grey" landed in the #9 slot. In the age of iTunes, singles dominate the poularity of an artist so for purposes of this post, the focus will be on whether any song from Fuego will catch the publics ear.

We only have a few songs to go off of but so far the ones released are strong candidates for catapulting Fuego into commercial success. 

UPDATE: NPR just launched a First Listen for Fuego! Here the whole album here.

Lets start with "Waiting All Night". Listen below.

While this is my favorite track released so far, I don't see it being the hit that puts the album on the map. The production quality of this track is what stands out. The producer, Bob Ezrin, has cast a wide net of bands he's worked with but one of the more notable is Pink Floyd (The Wall, Momentary Lapse of Reason, Division Bell). In this cut, you can hear the Floyd undertones come through the production. It's an airy track and for us fans, there's lots of room left for further interpretation. But could this track stand the test of radio play? Probably not. 

Their next release was "The Line". Listen below. 

Now this has more radio play potential. My only issue with this song is the beginning. It starts off slow and lets be honest, the lyrics are pretty corny, which is typical for Phish. The song is also about a rather random event in the grand scheme of things. It's about Darius Washington Jr., a college basketball player who missed two out of three free throw shots in a final four match up against Michigan State. The shots would have won his team the game. A tough moment for sure and the lyrics, while technically about this one moment, could translate into really any challenging moment in ones life. The one thing the public likes is a song they can relate to so "The Line" certainly has that going for it. 

The most recent release is "555". Listen below. 

A much funkier tune then the previous two, this is Mike Gordon at his best. But Gordo at his best isn't quite commercial appeal. As influences go, there's Little Feet all throughout this track. And once again, the Floyd influence with the background singers is present. I love the return of horns to the Phish studio sessions. Don't quote me on this but I think it's been since Hoist (1994) where horns were present on a Phish album. 

So to recap, "The Line", is perhaps the one song released so far that has the best chance to hit the radio waves with force. But there's still plenty of meat left on the yet unreleased album. One song in particular, "Monica", could possibly be the track that breaks the commercial camels back. Watch "Monica" from Halloween last year.

You might be asking, why care about such success? Doesn't commercial success mean the band has sold out? If you were talking to the Luke circa 1998, I'd probably agree with you and instead of being excited about such album success, I'd be complaing about how poppy the new tunes sound and that they don't hold a candle to Phish epics such as "You Enjoy Myself" or "David Bowie".

To be fare to this younger Luke, he's right that these songs don't have anywhere near the same appeal as those early day tracks that have gone on to define the essence of the band. But what that Luke doesn't quite understand is that the band has changed dramatically since those early days. For once, the band seems to have embraced this change. If you look back to Joy, their previous album and the first after returning from their 2004 break up, everyone was talking about the next Trey opus, "Time Turns Elastic". Well, we all know how that attempt to recreate the past went for Trey and the band. Onward and upward.