From the December 1, 1995 Daily Illini

Toad the Wet Sprocket

In Light Syrup

Columbia

4 1/2 stars 

The word from Toad's manager, Chris Blake, is that In Light Syrup is an 
album that almost wasn't. The band had worried that the collection of 
outtakes and rarities might be mistaken for their next studio album and 
that listeners would get the wrong idea on where Toad is or is going, he 
said.
 
Luckily for their fans, the band decided to go ahead and release the 
album, which should put an end to those low-quality tape compilations of 
the songs on Syrup that we've been dubbing and swapping for a while now, 
and give other listeners a chance to hear some of the band's best 
songs-two of my favorite Toad songs are on the disc.

The album incorporates music from two soundtracks, three tapes sent out to
the band's mailing list, one bonus track from a European release, and two
never-before-released songs.

One of the unreleased songs, the catchy, upbeat "Good Intentions" has had
some rather massive airplay after being added to the "Friends" soundtrack.
According to Blake, the band worried that the song was too "pop," so they
removed it from Fear and replaced it with "All I Want," the hit single 
that almost single-handedly gave the band fame outside of the West coast.

No offense to the band's lead singer, Glen Phillips, but the two best 
songs on the disc are both sung by guitarist and back-up vocalist Todd 
Nichols. Both songs feature Nichol's haunting voice and some of the most 
intriguing lyrics Phillips has written.

"Are We Afraid," which the band describes as "our ambient experiment from
the Fear sessions," was a hit with fans after the band sent it out to the
mailing list and, with its bare, haunting, simple sound, should be a hit 
on Syrup, too.

By far the best song on Syrup is a B-side to the band's hit "Fall 
Down"-"All Right." It's another simple song-only Nichol's bass is present
to ground his soaring voice.

"'All Right' was a unanimous favorite from the Dulcinea sessions, but for
some reason just didn't fit on the record," the band wrote in Syrup's 
liner notes. "We kicked ourselves later for its exclusion, but are happy 
to see it on an album at last."

Other personal favorites include the soundtrack cut, "Brother" from So I 
Married an Axe Murderer and "So Alive," the B-side from "I Will Not Take 
These Things for Granted." Both are some of the most upbeat Toad songs out
there-and that's saying a lot.

Also worth mentioning is "Hope," the bonus track on the European release 
of Dulcinea (Why do the Europeans get all the cool stuff?). About as 
simple as Toad songs go, both in terms of lyrics and music, the song is 
still catchy-it's eerie, chant-like melody with lots of reverb should echo
in your head a while.



-by John Lalande