Editorial Reviews

The Mutual Admiration Society is a scintillating collaboration between former former Toad the Wet Sprocket frontman Glen Phillips and bluegrass innovators Nickel Creek. The songs were written by Phillips, and they have some of the oblique quality of the metaphysical, mystical musings on life and love typical of Nickel Creek's Chris Thile. In its moody moments -- the wistful album opener, "Comes a Time," for instance, and the dirgelike instrumental "Running Out" -- this MAS gathering sounds as ethereal as the first Nickel Creek album. Elsewhere, Ethan Johns's production and arrangements suggest the more adventurous sound of Nickel Creek's second album, This Side. The jazzy "Somewhere Out There" offers a heady instrumental mix of resonant mandolin playing, Sara Watkins's swirling fiddle lines, and gentle waves of percussion supporting Phillips's plaintive vocal and Watkins's delicate harmonizing. The soft acoustic passages in "Trouble" give way to eerie, wailing fiddle lines that rise in psychic intensity with the entrance of drums and stinging electric guitar lines, as Phillips soars into an impressive falsetto vocal that gives the tune an unsettling ambiance. The disc winds down on a loose-goosey note with "Think About Your Troubles," a languorous, fanciful ditty that sits somewhere between blues and cabaret; it contains almost a minute of total silence before reigniting with a Hot Club–style workout that features Watkins in full Stephane Grappelli–style free flight. Will wonders never cease? Not where Nickel Creek is concerned. David McGee, Barnes & Noble

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