Toad the Wet Sprocket, Dulcinea

I first came across Toad the Wet Sprocket, I think, in the summer of 1993, at New England Music Camp in Maine. The summer of my first, and therefore kind of frightening, kiss (to "End of the Road," by Boyz II Men). I played flute, and lived in North Sault, one half of a cabin (the other half being South Sault) that housed probably 24 kids - we had three or four counselors who slept in a room in between us, and one of them, Ed, was a huge fan of Toad the Wet Sprocket. I remember that he had one of their other albums, fear, on tape, and signed by everyone in the band.

The best part, I think, about New England Music Camp, was a song competition, which pitted each of the cabins against each other in song performance - we had to write one ourselves, and perform one cover, and we'd do them for each other in the halfshell on campus. Because of Ed's Toad the Wet Sprocket adoration, we ended up covering "I Will Not Take These Things for Granted" from fear, and behind the strength of our original "We Are the Sault-ines," we triumphed over the rest of the camp that session.

Dulcinea does not sound triumphant or victorious. Its sound is hard and, even on more light-hearted songs, lead singer Glen Phillips's voice is not given to levity. Toad the Wet Sprocket sounds like a band that grew up in the garage of a run-down coastal bungalow, rebelling against their happy-go-lucky, surfing parents. They probably surf, too, but for the band members, the experience of surfing is more intense than spiritual. For the most part, it works - the hooks are enticing and the music is well-constructed. Surprisingly, the bridges strike me as the climax of most of the songs, which is great, since bridges can be such a let-down, sort of like bridge, the card game.

Three-quarters of the album works - a lot of the songs manage to channel that angrier sound and back off a little, but the last three cross the border into full-fledged angst. Which is a little much for a southern Californian band whose members live on the ocean (in my imagination, anyway).

Anyway, since it's the first album I'm ranking, and especially since it's a solid album with an overarching character to it, it gets the number one slot on my ranking.