Thoughtful acoustic reworkings of well-known tracks and deep cuts.
Toad the Wet Sprocket have been around, albeit, intermittently for 40 years, so it feels an appropriate anniversary to release what could be deemed a 14 track best of album. Although the band’s commercial success coincided with the epoch when MTV Unplugged was at its zenith, in the early 1990s, they never recorded a session for the show. This record remedies that gap in their discography, however, these songs weren’t recorded live with an audience. Even though the recording process started out with the band intending to capture themselves playing “live and raw” in a circle facing each other, the process evolved into a studio-enhanced project. The three current band members, Glen Phillips, Todd Nichols, and Dean Dinning, were augmented by 11 guest musicians. These additional collaborators contributed fiddle, mandolin and accordion, amongst other instruments, which provide a warm, textured soundscape not dissimilar to that found on some of R.E.M.’s finest albums.
Proceedings start with ‘All I Want‘, from 1992, which was probably the band’s biggest-selling single. This version pushes the vocals to the fore and the drumming is more nuanced than on the original recording. The subtlety of the drumming by Carl Thomson on all the songs on this album is down to him employing “tea towel drums”, a technique frequently employed by Ringo Starr in The Beatles, and many other drummers since, to mute their sound, or by simply playing the cajon. The introduction of ‘Woodburning’ initially brings to mind R.E.M.’s ‘Try not to Breathe’, in some ways it shares a similar theme, albeit one of emotional rather than physical exhaustion.
‘Good Intentions‘ has a tinge of bluegrass to it, with some great mandolin runs. The acoustic re-recording is lighter, as well as being more sprightly and country-leaning than the original version on which, the somewhat plodding bass seems to drag everything down slightly. The string arrangement on ‘Jam’ reinforces the long‑standing comparisons between Toad the Wet Sprocket and R.E.M.; this new recording, in particular, carries clear echoes of the atmospheric sound Michael Stipe and company crafted on “Automatic for the People”. ‘Walk on the Ocean’ was a song that lead singer Phillips said that he wrote quickly using the “first thing that came across my mind”; however, it still conveys a depth of feeling.
‘Transient Whales’ stands out as one of the album’s most emotionally resonant tracks, anchored by a wonderful string section that deepens its sense of drift and longing. The refrain, “All we have is each other and the songs we share”, feels especially poignant given that, although the song was released seven years after Phillips’s divorce, it echoes his own reflections on being cast adrift and as Phillips has said in an interview, “missing the cradle of family and having a stable home.” It’s a song that captures both dislocation and connection, embodying the album’s broader themes of searching, healing, and holding on to what matters most.
‘Nanci’ is a song which uses Nanci Griffith’s and Loretta Lynn’s names and musical styles to highlight the tug of war that often happens when two people, who are close to each other, have to make challenging and emotional decisions. The album finishes with the piano-led ‘Rings’ which uses the analogy of life’s experiences being like tree rings which accumulate over time. These new recordings provide a timely reminder that many of Toad the Wet Sprocket’s songs still possess a quiet beauty many years after the original versions were released.
