It's no news, the new
Phish studio album has been announced back in october 2013 during the Halloween show (more from me about that
soon). Tentatively titled
Wingsuit, the Phishbill (
downloadable here) explained the concept of an album "from the future". The band went in studio with
Bob Ezrin in november and the final product, now called
Fuego, has been announced last wednesday for a release date on the 24th june.
We can't really talk about the music right now except for what we heard on Halloween and the first song revealed, Waiting all night. In this new song, you can really hear the work done on the sound of the band and the voice harmonies. We also know which songs played in Atlantic City didn't make it to the record. A song like Snow is really difficult to play and sing on stage but can be a lovely tune if worked well in a studio. That's why I personnaly think they would have fit right. I hope for a future b-sides release like Party Time.
Anyway, I'm glade to read that the album will feature guest vocalists and horns. I'm all for a studio album that doesn't sound like the concert. I didn't really enjoyed Joy at the time because the songs were played just like on stage but missed the jams. It seems we won't have such things this time around.
But what stroke me is, of course, the cover art. At first glance, it looks like a photoshoped picture but after a closer look, it's a photo-realistic psychedelic painting of six giant men, standing around an enormous fire explosion in a country landscape. Before you see the tiny houses at the men's feet, you can't have a true sense of the scale of the image.
Fuego Vinyl edition
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Paco Pomet 'The test' (Oil on canvas. 80x120cm. 2013)
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The original painting is called The Test from the spanish artist Paco Pomet. His web site showcases his surrealistic work in high-resolutions scans. I really like his style, combining vintage-looking black and white imagery with funky colored strange event. As of today, we know he provided two more paitings for the record package and release merchandising (the vinyl record slipmat and the limited litograph). While browsing his gallery, I noticed several other paintings that could fit the theme like Blues and Deserción (2014) or Sin título and La tempestad (2012).
Fuego Record Player Slipmat
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Paco Pomet 'Sunday' (Oil on canvas. 120x160cm. 2012)
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Which ones do you think they'll use ? I'll try to give away a Fuego CD to one of you (randomly picked) who'd make a good guess.
This contest is for European fans only and suggestions must be made in the comments here before the 10th june (or before if the album package is released or leaked prior to this date).
A lithograph taken from the album package
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Paco Pomet 'Eden' (Oil on canvas. 130x170cm. 2013)
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By the way, do you think we have a pattern or a theme here ? Fuego means fire in spanish and we have a spanish painter who likes to put fire explosions on old-looking pictures.
Too bad there won't be a release party in Barcelona this summer...