Shine

1	Shine 3:08
2	Tuesday 3:42
3	Invisible 3:52
4	Come as Melody 4:27
5	Air Said to Me 3:50
6	Wherever You Find It 5:53
7	Sweet Dreams Melinda 3:35
8	Love Is Freedom 3:54
9	Sleep Again 5:00
10	Spin 4:51
11	Black 4:32
12	Love That Breaks All Lines 6:21

Barnes & Noble

For more than two decades, Trey Anastasio's guitar helped propel Phish into all manner of intergalactic adventuring: darting this way and that, it bobbed and weaved while paying no attention whatsoever to the clock on the wall. For his solo debut, on the other hand, the guitarist doesn't hesitate to cut to the chase, offering up a passel of concise songs -- none of which crack the six-minute mark -- that owe as much to R.E.M or the Black Crowes as to whatever extraterrestrial influences he tried to channel way back when. Diehards may quibble about the lack of extended six-string dissertations, but it's hard to deny the earthy stomp conjured up on songs like "Come as Melody," a power-trio construction that's as redolent of the roadhouse as anything John Fogerty ever cooked up. The disc's title track, while less sweat-soaked, is just as compelling, with a chiming guitar line that conjures up images of early-'70s AM radio -- and a love-your-neighbor lyric that defies the listener not to sing along. At times, it seems like Anastasio is trying to pack a little too much into the grooves of Shine -- sweeping ballads like "Love That Breaks All Lines" bog down, in part because his voice isn't really powerful enough to carry them -- but the guy's so guileless in putting it all together that the mood seldom strays from the sunny side of the street. David Sprague

All Music Guide

Shine is an appropriate name for Trey Anastasio's first solo album since Phish's official 2004 disbandment: it's a bright, lively, shiny album, the next logical step from his first solo pop album, 2002's Trey Anastasio. In fact, Shine is considerably more streamlined and straight-ahead than that eponymous affair, which did have its adventurous moments, including the lengthy, 11-minute "Last Tube." In contrast, the longest song here clocks in a little bit over six minutes, and the entire record is tight, focused, clean, and quite hooky. In other words, it's the polar opposite of any Phish studio album; even at their tightest, the band showed a gleeful tendency to drift off course, and never quite could manage to translate their best elements from the stage to the studio. On his own, however, Anastasio manages to sound both sharp and relaxed, never letting his songs stretch out too long in the studio, and layering them just enough to keep the recordings dynamic and interesting. Plus, he has a good set of songs here on Shine -- not only are songs like the circular, irresistible "Tuesday" as ingratiating as the best moments on his self-titled 2002 platter, but this is a consistently strong, varied set of songs. Not just that, but this is one of the sunniest, friendliest, and catchiest sets of mainstream pop/rock released in 2005, which brings up the major problem with the record: although it shares similarities with Phish's work -- he was the main creative force in the band, after all -- its cheerful and concise nature is likely to alienate fans who only liked the band when it played never-ending jams. That's fine: Shine isn't for them. This is for all the listeners who liked Phish's good taste, eclectic nature, and Anastasio's playing (not to mention his good-natured persona in the Bittersweet Motel documentary), but never liked one of their albums. For those listeners, this is perhaps the best album Anastasio has yet made. Stephen Thomas Erlewine