marcman's Full Review: Fear by Toad The Wet Sprocket
Toad the Wet Sprocket broke through and achieved their first measure of mainstream success in 1991 when "Fear" was released. Up until that point, Toad had been the buzz of their hometown of Santa Barbara, California, but had not gotten much exposure outside of their area. Compared to 1990's "Pale", "Fear" sounded much better, due to a bigger budget for production. "Fear" also brought Toad to the public's attention with two hit singles that got a lot of radio play: "Walk on the Ocean" and "All I Want". To this day, these are Toad's biggest hits.
Toad emerged with a unique modern rock sound and engaging lyrics. The sound was guitar-driven, but not distorted very much. Songs had clean and semi-distorted guitars (often mixed together). Lots of arpeggios. Tasteful melodies and harmonies. As for the lyrics, Toad was always much more a thinking man's band rather than a party band (despite the fact that they have an EP called "Acoustic Dance Party"). Mostly attributed to singer/guitarist Glen Phillips, lyrics covered a wide variety of topics from politics to relationships to rape.
"Fear" has a lot of very memorable songs. First, there's the huge hits "Walk on the Ocean" and "All I Want". Then there's "Is It For Me", the tale of a boyhood adventure gone wrong. There's the unusual sounding "Butterflies" and a short but sweet song called "The Nightingale Song". "Hold Her Down" is a disturbing song about violence against women and "Something to Say" is a great song about a guy with a bad temper. This last one has one of my favorite lyrics:
he drops hints but he won't tell you what's really on his mind
but I know if I look that it's easy to find
and he's got a way with his anger and the way he lets it show
like the smouldering smoke when the fire's left the coals
"In My Ear" has another lyric that I like:
never meant half of the things that I said to you
so you know
there's a half that might be true
If you are a fan of modern rock, check out this album. If you like what you hear, check out "Dulcinea" and "Coil" and the new Glen Phillips solo album (Toad unfortunately split after "Coil"). Look for my epinions on these albums.
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