Pale

• Artist: Toad the Wet Sprocket
• Rating:
• Release Date: 1990 01
• Total Time: 38:46
• Type: Lyrics are included with the album
• Genre: Rock

Review

As with the band's debut, Bread & Circus, Toad the Wet Sprocket's Pale was recorded virtually live in the studio, a tactic the band would sadly abandon to varying degrees with each future album. Pale's leaden-hued production, supervised by ex-Lone Justice bassist Marvin Etzioni, imbues these songs with a welcome sense of space that gracefully separates each instrument without rendering a cold, stark sound. The piano-guitar interplay on "High on a Riverbed" is a gentle sea-swept gust, while the first nine bars of the jet black-humored "Corporal Brown" are some of the most organically textured electric guitar this side of R.E.M.'s original "Radio Free Europe." Singer Glen Phillips' voice is still charmingly undeveloped at this stage (he was 18 at the time), and the bandmembers exude a restraint and sagacity that belies their relative youth. "I Think About," for example, probes the value of absorbing life experience despite fleeting time, a subject most artists don't broach until they're two decades into a career. The beautifully sullen opener, "Torn," with its creaking-door intro, takes a different tack on the calendar of life as Phillips sings, "Please don't touch me/Love like an infant trying to stand up." It's a watershed moment on the album, and it arrives less than a minute in. It's been said that an aversion to joy is crucial in the development of strong rock songwriting -- otherwise, weak and weightless material often results. Bread & Circus abides by this axiom obediently to mostly stellar results; Pale, however, embraces the notion without reservation, and the improvement between the pair of albums is remarkable. Its exquisite songs mope without wallowing, avoiding the few teen angst clichés that pockmark its predecessor. Pale is early Toad at its old-soul peak. ~ Charles Hodgkins, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
Torn	Toad the Wet Sprocket	Toad the Wet Sprocket	(2:58)
Come Back Down	Toad the Wet Sprocket	Toad the Wet Sprocket	(3:19)
Don't Go Away	Toad the Wet Sprocket	Toad the Wet Sprocket	(4:33)
High on a Riverbed	Toad the Wet Sprocket	Toad the Wet Sprocket	(4:01)
I Think About	Toad the Wet Sprocket	Toad the Wet Sprocket	(3:23)
Corporal Brown	Toad the Wet Sprocket	Toad the Wet Sprocket	(3:10)
Jam	Toad the Wet Sprocket	Toad the Wet Sprocket	(3:31)
Chile	Toad the Wet Sprocket	Toad the Wet Sprocket	(4:38)
Liars Everywhere	Toad the Wet Sprocket	Toad the Wet Sprocket	(2:17)
Nothing Is Alone	Toad the Wet Sprocket	Toad the Wet Sprocket	(2:38)
She Cried	Toad the Wet Sprocket	Toad the Wet Sprocket	(4:28)

Credits

Marvin Etzioni (Producer), Toad the Wet Sprocket (Main Performer), Dean Dinning (?), Paul DuGre (Engineer), Paul DuGre (Mixing), Brian Gardner (Mastering), Joe Gastwirt (Preparation), Randy Guss (?), Todd Nichols (?), David Mitson (Preparation), Alan Messer (Photography), Nancy Donald (Art Direction), Mary Maurer (Art Direction), Snow (?), Glen Phillips (Vocals), Glen Phillips (?)

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