DeViCom CD-Review: Toad the Wet Sprocket

Without any doubt, Fear was Toad the Wet Sprocket's biggest success and at the same the opening gate to stardome caused by Top 40 breakthrough "All I Want." The band works with old catchy jangle pop and garage rock traditions and so it ends up in great songs like "Butterflies" or "Walk on the Ocean." And with his lyrics Glen Philips proves to be one of the most literate songwriters of the early 90s. Be it a tale of boyhood mischief ("Is It for Me") or a question of faith ("Pray Your Gods") - his lyrics sounds wise but they never sound too exaggerated although "I Will Not Take These Things for Granted" falls a bit too much into pop-clichés. Its lyrics built a well-known image of life's riches. But OK, in the band's hands you can bear it.
Fear shows that all through the years Toad the Wet Sprocket have grown together as a band because the songs have substance and sound like a singular stream of sounds. Their juxtaposition of accordions and mandolins against hard-hitting electric guitars amplifies the blend of ease and urgency that plays out from song to song.
But although the band has its remarkable strengths the entire production cheapens the band's play. The production is too clean and instead of giving the band the needed roughness at points when they try to break out ("Stories I Tell") producer Gavin MacKillop fails extremely and keeps up with the sound that is too snooth. If the sound have had been more aggressive then Fear could have turned into a real milestone but the band agreed with MacKillop's sound.