Rocktrospectiva: The Refined And Quite Successful "Fear" Turns 35

Released on 27 August 1991 "Fear" was the 3rd., studio album by the US alternative rock band Toad The Wet Sprocket. It became the first commercially successful album for the band, selling over a million copies and was certified platinum three years after release, on September 1, 1994.

The album debuted at number 49 on Billboard 200 a year after its release. Two of the album's singles peaked within the Billboard Hot 100's top 40: "All I Want" and "Walk on the Ocean", which peaked at numbers 15 and 18 on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. Other singles released were "Is It For Me?" & "I Will Not Take These Things For Granted."

Fear was Toad the Wet Sprocket’s coming-of-age album, one where they graduated from woodshedding of the first two albums to a fully-formed artist.  And what an artistry it is. It contained both their biggest hits "All I Want" and perhaps most consistent set of tunes.

The album opened nonchalantly with their signature tune "Walk on the Ocean" which was just as indescribable as Toad’s artistic identity.  Languid yet steady, nostalgic and poignant, the song takes us through a mysterious journey in which we venture out of the harsh reality, witness some miracles, only to be pulled back into an unsettling homecoming. From there the band took us through eleven more songs that go up and down effortlessly both in terms of momentum and intensity, with not a single weak spot in sight.  "Is It for Me", "Hold Her Down", "Before You Were Born" all rock hard while painting vivid pictures of childhood adventure going awry, sexual violence and personal rejection.  "Something To Say" and "All I Want" were more reassuring, even if not entirely able to abandon the melancholy behind.  “Pray Your Gods” and “Stories I Tell” went into somber and scary places, but those are the low points that make the closer "I Will Not Take These Things for Granted" all the more uplifting.  And finally the shortest song "Nightingale Song" is a perfectly crafted gem about life's humbling moments.

Fear was the real and serious deal, the band had a bigger production budget, and producer Gavin McKillop created a reverb-drenched sonic soundscape that highlights the mystery that still exists in the band songs.  Philips, guitarist Todd Nichols and bassist Dean Dinning took advantage of the longer studio time by creating denser and more varied layers than they have done before or since, and the result is an album full of beautiful acoustic layers, a sort of ntrovert's rock, cause as relatable as some of Glen's lyrics are, Toad is about subtlety, ambiguity and shades of gray.  

 

Fear Track List:  

 

1. Walk On The Ocean

2. Is It For Me?

3. Butterflies

4. Nightingale Song

5. Hold Her Down

6. Pray Your Gods

7. Before You Were Born

8. Something To Say

9. In My Ear

10. All I Want

11. Stories I Tell

12. I Will Not Take These Things For Granted