Fuego was recorded in late 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee after a series of writing sessions at the Barn in Vermont and was produced by Bob Ezrin. While Fuego's ten new tracks include songs that individual members brought to the table in usual Phish fashion, the bulk of the material was written by all four, working together at the Barn, often writing in a stream-of-consciousness style. The song "Fuego" was recorded live during the soundcheck of the band's October 30, 2013 concert at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic, New Jersey. In a playful spin on Phish's tradition of musical costumes, the band debuted eight songs from the album on October 31, 2013 as the second set of their Halloween concert at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The original working title of the album was Wingsuit, but in May 2014 Phish announced that the album would be called Fuego. Ultimately, three songs included in the Halloween performance debut didn't make it onto the studio version: "Snow", "Amidst the Peals of Laughter", and "You Never Know". "Halfway to the Moon" made its live debut in 2010 and "Winterqueen" was debuted by Trey Anastasio Band in 2011, before Phish performed it for the first time at the 2013 Halloween show.
Singles
One track, "Waiting All Night", was released on NPR's website on May 14, 2014, along with a complete track listing of the album. A second song, "The Line", was released online for streaming on May 27, 2014, and a third, "555", was released on YouTube on June 12, 2014. On June 15, 2014, the entire album was made available to the public to stream online on NPR's website as a part of its "First Listen" series.
Critical reception
In Rolling Stone, Will Hermes wrote, "Let's say you wanted to write a Phish album in 2014.... Most important, you'd write optimistic songs that can be jammed all the way up to our depleted ozone in concert. Phish do all this on their 12th studio LP — struggling to transform the onstage magic into bits and bytes, and mostly nailing it.... Geek-funk grooves spaz-out merrily, and producer Bob Ezrin keeps it feeling live. Lyrics remain an Achilles' heel, but sometimes Phish hit profundity sideways.... "A hero's what I'm not," Anastasio sings ruefully, before spinning out another set of guitar lines that prove him exactly wrong." On AllMusic, Fred Thomas said, "Instead of an overblown studio creation, Fuego instead finds the band sounding relaxed and connected, but also distinctly articulate in their often complex twists and turns. More than the smart production, Fuego is a standout in Phish's sometimes less-than-impressive studio catalog on the strengths of its ten stellar tracks, inspired tunes that share a loose thread as they bound between virtuosic playing, flirtations with gospel and funk, and the kind of eclectic rock jamming Phish have made their name on.... With sharp production and some of the better compositions Phish have managed in ages, Fuego ranks among their best studio albums, capturing strands of the frenetic, cartoonish, darkly cautionary, and open-hearted expressions that make their concerts such moving experiences, but which often get lost when the tape starts rolling." On Consequence of Sound, Jake Cohen wrote, "... we must judge Fuego on its ability to stand alone as a work of studio art. On that merit, it has much to applaud. Phish wisely avoided trying to capture the live experience on wax, instead hiring the well-pedigreed classic rock producer Bob Ezrin.... Like the compositions themselves, the brilliance of Ezrin’s work here is in the nuances.... Thankfully, this album's shortcomings are not due to a drying up of creativity or motivation.... Phish wrote most of these songs together, while the basic rhythms and progressions come directly from some of their best recent concert jams. Their democratic approach to composition signals a more mature band, while individual contributions from Gordon and McConnell are some of their strongest to date." In Mountain Weekly News, Zach Jones said, "For over 30 years, Phish has risen from a college jam band in Vermont to one of the largest touring bands to date. Long heralded as the band that would replace the Grateful Dead, Phish has evolved as much more than a replacement band. They have dealt with their own ups and downs, highs and lows, and came out a much stronger, tighter band, which is evident on their latest release, Fuego."
Commercial performance
The album debuted at number 7 on the Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 32,000 copies in the United States. The album has sold 71,000 copies in the United States as of September 2016.
