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On his solo debut, Glen Phillips deals with a lot of the same issues he did while fronting toad the wet sprocket: abused women, women who get taken advantage of, darkness, wanting, renewal, and broken promises.  He paints pictures of people, and allows us to deal with the feelings provoked by his stories about them.

Sometimes serious, sometimes playful, Phillips has given us twelve songs in which we can figure out who we are.  Our reactions to his characters says a lot about us, whether we are sympathetic, or angry, or both.  “Men Just Leave” portrays women looking for love, thinking they have found it, then losing it and having to deal with the consequences of their actions:

 One and one ends up to be three
 Don’t need to have love, don’t need to be sweet
 But when the air gets heavy and it’s hard to breathe
 The women get stuck, and men just leave”

And once you let them get to you
It never washes off
‘Cause they can smell the weak ones
And just pick you off like a pigeon
And each one is worse than the last one
Until you’re a professional victim

Much like Richard Page (Mr. Mister), Phillips suffers a little without the backing of his former group, but the vocal abilities and songwriting still shine through.  Hopefully, this release is a sign of greater things to come.

Brian A. Smith 6/16/2001