Head Toad Glen Phillips brightens with ‘There is So Much Here’

There’s nothing like a great breakup album. Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” is a band-wide soap opera that has aged well. Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” is raw, vulnerable and brilliant.

Liz Phair’s clever and celebratory “Exile in Guyville” turns the tables on boyfriends and indie-rock misogynists. Bruce Springsteen’s “Tunnel of Love” painfully telegraphs the dissolution of his first marriage.

Glen Phillips’ “Swallowed by the New” was inspired by his painful divorce. When the union with the mother of his three children unraveled, the leader of Toad the Wet Sprocket collected himself and wrote an array of moving tunes, such as “Leaving Oldtown,” “Held Up” and “Reconstructing the Diary.”

“I wanted to make something when I was so bleeping broken,” Phillips said by phone from his Santa Barbara home. “I was filled with a great deal of sorrow.”

Phillips, 51, bounced back from 2016’s “Swallowed” with “There is So Much Here,” which drops today. Phillips, like Springsteen, Phair and Mitchell fell in love again.

“There is So Much Here,” which will be showcased Tuesday at the Lucky You Lounge, is an optimistic collection of catchy pop-rock songs.

“I already wrote about grief and I made it past that,” Phillips said. “I had turned the corner and the funny thing is that I didn’t realize it. I’m in a great space with my fiance but it’s more than that. I allowed myself to have fun again.”

Fun isn’t easy for Phillips, who suffers from occasional bouts of depression. But Phillips let himself go and was inspired by a stimulating songwriting game his pal and producer Matt the Electrician, aka Matt Sever, plays.

“(Austin singer-songwriter) Bob Schneider invented the game that Matt plays,” Phillips said. “Matt sends out a prompt to 20 of us songwriters in a group and we all write a song with that idea in it. The words and all of the titles were taken from that game.”

Phillips’ new material is personal, either inspired by his girlfriend or time spent in lockdown. “ ‘The Sound of Drinking’ is such a pandemic song,” Phillips said. “It was so strange being home for a long time for the first time in about 30 years. It was quite an adjustment getting used to the quiet and noticing the mundane parts of life.”

Expect some Toad the Wet Sprocket songs, as well as some covers tossed into Phillips’ set.

“The songs I have written for (Toad the Wet Sprocket) are a part of me and I can’t help but do them solo,” Phillips said.

Toad the Wet Sprocket remains a viable entity. The band, which supported its latest album, “Starting Now” with a tour in 2021, is working on new material.

“Toad has made great music,” Phillips said. “We have a willingness to move forward. The last couple of years with Toad have felt better than it has in a decade.”

The band, which had the same lineup since forming in 1986, had its first personnel change when drummer Randy Guss left the band in 2020.

“It’s so sad not to have Randy in the group anymore, but he has a bone condition,” Phillips said. “Playing drums is an athletic position and Randy was in a ton of pain. Sometimes you have to move on and it becomes alright. You can be happy again.”

That goes for Phillips in Toad the Wet Sprocket and his personal life.

“It’s true,” he said. “There are changes in life and you have to change with it. I’m fortunate that I still have my band, a solo career and on top of that, I have someone new in my life. Life’s not easy but I’m alright.”