TOBIN SPROUT
Lost Planets And Phantom Voices (Luna)
Reviewed by Alan Wright

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As a fan of Tobin Sprout's contributions to the great Guided By Voices, I've also enjoyed his solo CDs, not to mention his more stripped-down powerpop band Eyes In Weasel, plus his continued collaborations with Robert Pollard as Airport Five. This, I think, is his best solo release yet. Tobin plays most of the instruments himself, although he gets help from some friends on a few songs. This album is chock full of excellent pop-psych work, catchy songs fleshed out with fuzzy guitars, organs, and other instruments for a very organic psychedelic sound. On some of his solo demos Tobin uses a drum machine, but here he uses real drums, which fit the music much better I think. Well, except for "Fortunes Theme No. 1," where one of those organs with rhythm boxes is utilized. The CD opener, "Indian Ink," is really amazing, as are tripped-out tunes like "Rub The Buddha Tummy," "Catch The Sun," and "Shirley The Rainbow." There's some nice acoustic guitar-based numbers like "Earth Links" and "Let Go Of My Beautiful Balloon," and a cool Exotica-inspired tune called (what else?) "Martini." Very excellent!

[Pick this up at www.insound.com.]

© 2003 - Alan Wright