For this edition, Ken Cheshire champions a band whose ridiculous name (lifted from a Monty Python sketch Eric Idle designed to be “so silly nobody would ever use it”) has always undersold the quiet brilliance underneath. High-school friends from Santa Barbara — Glen Phillips, Todd Nichols, Dean Dinning and Randy Guss — they made warm, jangly, thoughtful alt-rock that could land a knockout blow by playing softly, with two platinum albums in Fear and Dulcinea.
What makes Ken’s five so satisfying is that they quietly tell the band’s whole story: the gorgeous hit “Walk on the Ocean,” the platinum peak of “Crowing,” a genuine rarity in “Are We Afraid,” the pre-hiatus “Whatever I Fear,” and the fan-funded 2013 comeback “Is There Anyone Out There.” Breakthrough, peak, rarity, farewell and return — a fan’s love letter in five songs.
Tracklist
- Toad The Wet Sprocket — Walk On the Ocean — fear
- Toad The Wet Sprocket — Crowing — Dulcinea
- Toad The Wet Sprocket — Are We Afraid — In Light Syrup
- Toad The Wet Sprocket — Whatever I Fear — COIL
- Toad The Wet Sprocket — Is There Anyone Out There — New Constellation
- Toad The Wet Sprocket — Jam (Acoustic) — Rings (The Acoustic Sessions)
