Glen Phillips – Mr. Lemons

Glen Phillips – Mr. Lemons / 2006 Big Helium / 11 Tracks / http://www.bighelium.com / Reviewed 07 April 2006

For those individuals that were fans of nineties rock, Glen Phillips was at one point the lead singer of Toad The Wet Sprocket. Things change, it is a few years in the future and Phillips comes to “Mr. Lemons” with an opening track in “Everything But You” that washes over individuals.

This track mixes the vocals of a Bryan Adams with a Stevie Nicks-like backing set of vocals and an activist set of drums. This means that from even the first seconds of the disc, Phillips is in the driver’s seat. “Blind Sight” moves into the realm of a Jack Johnson or Dave Matthews; the backing instrumentation during the song is what really distinguishes Phillips from all the rest of the singer-songwriter hacks out on the market. Where “Blind Sight” was a slower song on “Mr. Lemons”, the quicker tempo of “Thank You” brings things back to the norm established on the first track of the disc. This is the well that Phillips goes back to a number of times during “Mr. Lemons”, and this timeless style is something that works out perfectly every time ey comes back to it.

The two styles mentioned struggle for dominance on “Mr. Lemons”, and the only thing that links them is the fact that Phillips instills every song on the disc with unmatched beauty. It is not only the music that Phillips milks for all ey can get on “Mr. Lemons” but even the silence during tracks like “Joyful Noise” is used for maximum effect. Different styles come into prominence during different tracks, as well. This means during songs like “Marigolds” that Phillips mixes James Taylor with the guitar work of a song like “Stairway to Heaven”. The resulting track is something completely new, removed from any of its influences. Overall, “Mr. Lemons” is an all-encompassing disc that takes sections from popular music of the last thirty years and gives it a current sound that cannot be topped. “Waiting” is perhaps the strongest song on the track as it is the farthest Phillips gets away from the general sound created by the disc; steel guitar lines mix with a country approach to the track. It is nice to see that an individual that established something so iconic (in Toad The Wet Sprocket) can come up with something completely different and even better than eir first incarnation. For fans, for anyone who likes good music.

Top Tracks: Everything But You, Waiting

Rating: 7.4/10

[JMcQ]