Toad The Wet Sprocket P.S. (A Toad Retrospective) CD

Additional personnel includes: Rob Taylor (guitar); Van Vinikow, Sid Page, Joel Derovin, Armen Garabedian, Tiffany Hu (violin); James Ross, John Scanton (viola); Peter Lenz, Suzie Katayama, Dane Little (cello); Dave Stone (bass); Frank Machia (programming).
Producers include: Brad Nack, Bruce Winter, Toad The Wet Sprocket, Gavin MacKillop, Marvin Etzioni.
Personnel: Rob Taylor (guitar); John Wittenberg, Eve Sprecher, Mari Tsumura, Dennis Molchan, Bob Sanov, Elizabeth Wilson, Tiffany Hu, Joel Derouin, Sid Page, Brian Leonard, Armen Garabedian, Haim Shtrum (violin); James Ross , John Scanlon (viola); Suzie Katayama (cello).
Audio Mixers: David Vaught; Gavin MacKillop; Paul DuGre; Andy Wallace; Tom Lord-Alge.
Audio Remixer: Michael Brauer.
Photographers: Dana Tynan; Danny Clinch.
Arranger: Van Dyke Parks.
Toad the Wet Sprocket was among the best and most popular of the adult alternative pop/rockers of the early '90s. They harnessed R.E.M.'s jangle pop, smoothed it out, and turned it into something pretty, melodic, and accessible to a wide audience. Toad the Wet Sprocket never was as idiosyncratic or edgy as R.E.M., so they could reach a totally different audience, comprised equally of politically correct collegiates and housewives. Their third album, Fear, arrived in the late summer of 1991 (after R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion"), and they benefited from radio's new willingness to play alternative bands, as "All I Want" and "Walk on the Ocean" became staples on modern rock and adult contemporary stations alike. Their long-delayed follow-up Dulcinea appeared in 1994, and while it spawned the hit "Fall Down," it failed to capture the same audience as Fear. Their fifth album, 1997's Coil, did even worse, and the group disbanded the following year. Such a brief span of hitmaking years makes Toad the Wet Sprocket a perfect choice for a hits collection, which P.S.: A Toad Retrospective almost is. It has all the hits, plus many of the fan favorites, but not necessarily in the versions people know. There's a new version of the title track, remixes of "All I Want" and "Hold Her Down," the "non-album" version of "Jam," an edit of "Somethings Always Wrong" -- not necessarily differences that are that noticeable, but are still a little disconcerting, and ultimately enough to make P.S. less than perfect. The alternate versions feel like misguided attempts to hook in die-hard fans (who may already own most of these takes), and while they're not alienating, they're not right, either. Nevertheless, it's still a good, basic collection -- enough to satisfy most casual fans, since it has the hits on one disc. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Toad came to prominence in the early-'90s, heavily influenced by the jangly alt-rock sound of early R.E.M. In retrospect, the band can be seen as something of a prototype for the alternative-tinged folk-rock renaissance that occured later in the decade with the Counting Crows and lesser groups like Tonic and Third Eye Blind. Toad The Wet Sprocket represented the friendliest possible face of '90s alt-rock, its sound full of feathery harmonies and sunny melodies.
The more pastoral side of the group's sound is exemplified by the breezy "Walk on the Ocean," with its acoustic strumming and languid fretless bass. Contrary to popular myth however, Toad was always capable of shading its style with subtle darkness. "Hold Her Down" (presented here in a remixed version) is an unsettling tale of sexual abuse, and "Fall Down" is a terse, angular rocker. "All I Want" is Toad at its best, a transcendent midtempo tune full of achingly beautiful harmonies, soulful lyricism, and a gentle thoughtfulness clearly at odds with the contemporaneous grunge bands to which Toad existed as a viable alternative.