Yes there is a pop vibe to Phish (that was part of my reason for the comment on Bouncing). and it shows in many of their older tunes. But even a tune like Bouncing (or My Sweet One) were like part of the mortar that held together the house. Whereas I felt the true compositions were more like the bricks of the house. (Hope this metaphor doesn't sound silly.) But they seemed to take this aspect and forget what they were truly capable of doing. And even Bouncing's rondo ending, was musically more interesting then most of the pop they wrote in the late 90's. Hope that clarifies.
And after hearing some of this years live work on Sirius's JAM ON station, I do agree that they sounded just as good (if not better) as they did back in the day. I would LOVE to hear more examples of a renewed ability to compose along the lines of You Enjoy Myself, etc. Can you cite specific tunes I should catch for this purpose? (I'm really not Phish bashing and would love to enjoy them again as I did in my college years. The jamming on their recent tour is a good start.