I will never forget the dark Saturday on which Mr. Lemons died, I was with the members of the now-defunct and delightful Memphis power pop band Crash Into June doing a bit of singing. I was providing backing vocals and harmonies for a track that appears on the What A Concept!: Tribute To Teenage Fanclub album. Neilson Hubbard, our friend and producer, received the phone call from his wife which led to great distress over the loss of his dear pet. The death of Mr. Lemons sent a pallor and wave of gloom over the gathered friends and associates.

It brought a sad, wry smile to my face to see that some three years later, Mr. Lemons appears as the title of the newest Glen Phillips CD. Whitewashed with the gorgeous harmonies and pop glory for which both producer Neilson Hubbard and performer Glen Phillips (former lead singer of Toad The Wet Sprocket, duhh) are known, Mr. Lemons is both a warming tribute to our lost comrade in the fight for kittendom and a refreshing return from the seemingly lost freedom in Mr. Phillips’s previous solo efforts. The arrangements are not nearly as complex as his previous efforts, allowing Mr. Phillips’ gorgeous, soaring harmonies to leave their mark on the listener. It seems to me that there lives something quite personal here, an innate darkness of overtone to the record, but a gloominess to which the listener wrestling with their own demons can attach themselves. This is the solo record I have been waiting to hear from Glen Phillips, an album that represents the best of what he does: truly great, not overly-produced pop music filled with warmth and depth. It is music on a par with and exceeding the best of contemporaries such as Aimee Mann, Jon Brion, Michael Penn, and Jason Falkner. The influence of Elvis Costello can be heard all throughout this record, and it is a likeness and a love which is replicated with diginity and beauty. It cannot wait to be heard by you if you love any or all of the aforementioned.

Though Mr. Lemons has left us and gone to kitty heaven, Mr. Lemons lives on in tribute to its producer, its author, and to the kitten himself. This is Glen Phillips’ finest solo effort I have heard to date and, hopefully, the marker by which his future musical endeavors will be gauged.

When you are attend a Glen Phillips shows, you can purchase an exclusive EP entitled Unlucky 7 which, to my ears, is as good or better than the best songs on Mr. Lemons itself. This is not available on the web or in stores to the best of my knowledge. Here’s a cut from that EP, and I encourage you to please go see Glen Phillips perform live when he plays in a town or locality near you.

Listen To Glen Phillips – Revelator

You can purchase Glen Phillips’ Mr. Lemons from Amazon by clicking this here spot.

You can purchase Mr. Lemons from iTunes by clicking ye olde button. –>

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