Leapfrogging the Competition4 Out Of 5 Stars
They'd have pulled three stars just for the fact that they lifted the band name from a Monty Python "MTV News/Rolling Stone" parody skit, but then Toad The Wet Sprocket were a band that didn't want to be conventional. They had an acoustically based rock-pop foundation that was lead by singer Glen Phillips and bandmates that all crafted songs for the band. Phillips, along with guitarist Todd Nichols, bassist Dean Dinning, and drummer Randy Guss lead off with a pair of modest albums, "Bread and Circus" and then "Pale." The songs "Way Away," "Come Back Down," and a different version of "Jam" come from this first duo, and show the band mastering an REM style of jangle pop.
The band refined their sound quickly and the next two albums were the band's watersheds. "Fear" came first and popped up Toad's first top 20 single in "All I Want." Easily one of the better jangle pop songs top come from the 90's, it masked the albums darker themes. "Hold Her Down" is a diatribe against sexual abuse, while "I Will Not Take These Things For Granted" is a lush take that follows the good things that life serves you, just as the title states. There was also the stately waltz-time "Walk On The Ocean." "Dulcinea" (which translates roughly in Spanish to a sweet lady) contained more of the same themes, with a sense of whimsy. But the singles were also the toughest of Toad's career to date; "Fall Down" (which squeaked into the Top 40) and an edit of "Something's Always Wrong," again using REM as a starting point. In my opinion, the best two Toad The Wet Sprocket CD's.
It took a couple of years and an odds and ends compilation titled "In Light Syrup" (again with the Monty Python references, from which the jangly "Good Intentions" comes from) before 1997's "Coil" appeared. Toad seemed a bit more somber, and they must have liked the album a lot afterwards, as "Come Down," "Crazy Life," and "Whatever I Fear" all made this best of's cut. It was also the band's highest charting album, peaking at #19. There's three new songs, a redone version of "PS," and the two previously unreleased in the US tunes "Eyes Wide Open" and "Silo Lullaby." Both are good representations of the band's overall sound and dynamic. I may have even bumped this up an extra star had they included their version of KISS's "Rock and Roll All Night" set to roughly the same arrangement as "Walk On The Ocean." But not to be.
Taken as a whole, this is one of those Greatest Hits collections that serves the band well. There are a couple of songs I would have wished for ("Windmills" would be a big one for me), but I am certain every fan has a quibble to make. "PS," by playing with the recording chronology, feels like an album made as a whole and not as a collection culled together without thought. That's how all best of's should be, and Toad The Wet Sprocket" get the treatment they deserve.
PS: Glen Phillips still records and tours, and has several decent solo CD's under his belt.
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