All My CDs, pt. 115: Fear

Fear - Toad the Wet Sprocket

This is another of the handful of CDs that I got and barely listened to, if at all, for years until this review project forced me to actually play it all the way through. I picked it up from the dollar rack because I thought Toad the Wet Sprocket was a terrific name for a band, and I had vague memories of enjoying a few of their songs on the radio, but mostly because of the name. To this day I don’t know if I’ve ever encountered a better band name.

My first impression of the music was that it’s mostly bland folk-influenced pop rock with vaguely poetic lyrics such as “Walk on the ocean / step on the stones / flesh becomes water / wood becomes bone.” It seemed all very positive and pseudo-spiritual to me. And I mostly held onto that notion until a few songs later when I heard “Take her arms and hold her down and hold her down and hold her down / until she stops screaming / take her arms and hold her down and hold her down and hold her down / until she stops breathing.”

From then on, I started to notice a distinctly dark and morbid bend to the words, which started to bleed over into the music as well. Yet it still manages to not be completely dismal. Maybe it’s the harmony or the way the voices blend with the instruments but even during the refrain that goes “Before you were born someone kicked in the door / you are not wanted here, stay back where you belong” sounds somehow uplifting.

My favorite song of the moment is Something to Say, if only for one couplet:

you can take me down, you can show me your home
not the place where you live but the place where you belong

Here’s to all of you for whom that might ring true.

Next: Violent Femmes