Billy Breathes by Phish

Billy Breathes, Phish's sixth studio album, came out on Elektra on October 15, 1996, and it's the Vermont jam band cutting the noodling down to size. Steve Lillywhite produced it at Bearsville Studios in Bearsville, New York between February and June 1996, fresh off their fall 1995 tour. Some songs, "Free", "Taste", "Cars Trucks Buses", "Theme from the Bottom", "Prince Caspian" and the title track among them, had been road-tested on stage the year before; the rest stayed out of their shows until after release, and "Bliss" wasn't played live until December 30, 2018.

Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon, Jon Fishman and Page McConnell sound warm, tight and unusually focused. The title comes from Anastasio's daughter Eliza, nicknamed "Billy" as a baby, and the cover is a close-up of Gordon, the first time any of them had appeared on a Phish sleeve. "Free" became their biggest rock radio hit, the album peaked at number seven on the Billboard 200, their best ever, and it helped carry them to a wider audience.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.