CD Reviews

Glen Phillips

Mr. Lemons | Umami

By SUE BELL | August 29, 2006

3.0 Stars

Since his days fronting Toad the Wet Sprocket, Glen Phillips has reined in his tendency to overemote. On his fourth solo studio disc, his recognizable old-for-his-age voice is no longer old for his age. Both gritty and resonant, his trademark belting is trimmed in all the right places, substituting over-the-top gusto for smooth restraint. No longer supported by a full, polished, modern-rock musical foundation, he relies more on subtleties, and they color Mr. Lemons with confessional honesty, whether his vocals are layered over the languid acoustic guitars of “Blindsighted” or the more upbeat drive of “Everything But You.” Almost everything here features an A-list female singer — Kim Richey, Kate York, and Garrison Starr to name three — and their voices don’t so much adorn Phillips’s melodies as raise them to a higher level. On the gospel-rooted “Thank You,” for example, Starr’s sandpaper wail brings out the richness in his delivery. Phillips has reinvented himself in the style of the ’70s singer-songwriter with the same pop savvy he brought to Toad the Wet Sprocket.