Toad The Wet Sprocket: Dean Dinning, Randy Guss, Todd Nichols, Glen Phillips.
Producers: Marvin Etzioni, Gavin Mackillop, Toad The Wet Sprocket.
Engineers: Gavin Mackillop.
Includes liner notes by Toad The Wet Sprocket.
IN LIGHT SYRUP is a collection of rarities from throughout Toad The Wet Sprocket's career, including three tracks ("Chicken," "We Are Afraid" and "Hobbit On The Rocks") that were previously available only by mail-order from the group's fan club.
As collections of B-sides, compilation tracks and other hard-to-find knickknacks go, Toad The Wet Sprocket's IN LIGHT SYRUP actually feels like a unified body of work. This has more than a little something to do with the Santa Barbara quartet's timeless guitar-pop sound, and the way they filter it through an '80s kaleidoscope. A careful listen to Glenn Philips' and Todd Nichols' songs can distill their influences: a little U2 here, a little XTC there (a giveaway, since they cite Andy Partridge as a major influence on "Hobbit On The Rocks"), a whole mess of R.E.M. all over the place. Even some late period Elvis Costello can be spotted in the interplay between willful but mellow guitars and thoughtful word-turns--this is, after all, a band named after a Monty Python skit. And like these artists, Toad are consumate craftsmen (just listen to the "Like A Rolling Stone"-style organ that decorates "Brother"), which may be the ultimate reason why IN LIGHT SYRUP sounds like a striking whole.
