Toad the Wet Sprocket is one of my all-time heroes. It’s hard to put into words what this band means to me, but one quality I admire in their music is relatability. There’s something about Toad’s music that connects to what life feels like. It’s that sense of “yeah, that’s how …
The cryptically named Dulcinea (named after a character in Don Quixote) seems to correct Toad’s trajectory from where they left off in Pale. It might have been a reaction to the overtly lush and known-to-be-more-optimistic-than-it-is Fear, which, despite its success, seems like a slight detour in the hindsight. More idiosyncratic with darker edges pushed forefront, …
Fear is Toad the Wet Sprocket’s coming-of-age album, one where they graduated from woodshedding of the first two albums (which aren’t without their charms) to a fully-formed artist. And what an artistry it is. 2016 marks the 25th anniversary of its release, but a quarter-century hasn’t resulted in the album sounding aged at …