After logging on to Jeremy Toback's web site and listening to selected song samples before I got his album, I was terrified. I had just finished reading about his new collaborations with L.A. session songwriters and top notch music producers when a chill of betrayal came over me. Had Jeremy abandoned his free-flowing lyrics and musical mix of beauty and moodiness for main stream pop stardom? Please, say it ain't so. "Will I Find You," the great album opener didn't quite calm all my fears - that is until the stunning "Universe Work" wafted out of my headphone speakers and into every music loving cell in my body. An eclectic blend of alternative rock rhythm and country acoustic guitar strumming was wrapped around ethereal lyrics like "Sifted dreams through sand/ Stood on hopeless hope." It was clear two songs into "Another True Fiction" that this is "Jeremy Toback's" most diverse and mature work.

As a member of semi-underground legends Brad, Toback and band members Shawn Smith and Regan Hagar were sadly relegated to the position of Stone Gossard's backing band. Stone may be a superstar in Pearl Jam, but on 1992's "Shame" and 1997's "Interiors," Stone Gossard is no greater and no lesser a member of one of the most under-appreciated bands of the decade. Toback was able to sneak a couple of vocal performances on to the two Brad albums, most notably the haunting and mysterious "Down" on "Shame."

But with his amazing self-titled debut EP, "Jeremy Toback" (Cherry Disc Records) in 1996, Toback took a flying leap into merging his experimental stream-of-consciousness lyrics with a mellow and rhythmic, almost Mid Eastern sounding album that is part yoga rock and part divinely inspired musicianship. Toback's major label debut, "Perfect Flux Thing," on the RCA records label, found him further exploring his spiritual and experimental sides with his amazing ability to put poetry to music. Toback toured with Lollapalooza in 1997, missing Brad's first touring dates as a band, which crushed me when I found out. I drove for over two hours in East Texas heat and humidity to catch him with Brad at Numbers nightclub in Houston only to have superstar Stone tell me that Jeremy was somewhere on the Lollapalooza tour.

"Perfect From The Start" chimes in as a charming and simple pop ballad and is just what the title implies - perfect from the start. A tender string accompaniment is carried by a laid back Tom Petty-ish "You Don't Know How It Feels" drum beat, along with his uniquely honest vocals. "Jeremy Toback" has been criticized by some in the press as having a less-than-stellar voice, which I find to be a nasty jab at someone that doesn't deserve to be knocked for simply putting his own natural voice out there. He's no Luciano Pavarotti, but he's certainly no Shawn Mullins monotonous clone either. Just listen to the boyish charm in his voice in the chorus "I got this soul search hunger/ You got this deep heart desire/ Though we try to deny/ We were perfect from the start," and try not to feel his sincerity deep down inside.

Two weeks after I received my advance of his album, I almost fell out of my chair when I stopped for a second on the Lifetime Channel to see if I had seen that day's episode of Unsolved Mysteries. And what comes pumping out of my TV's speakers but "You Make Me Feel," Jeremy's hit single that is playing on both alternative and pop stations all across the country. The song was the soundtrack for a 30-second promotional spot for Lifetime's afternoon movies. It was almost too mainstream for me, having been a fan of his for almost nine years, but at least housewives across America are being exposed to his great music. "You Make Me Feel" is perhaps his most accessible and catchy song, but it still has an undercurrent of lovelorn lyrics like "You make me feel/ Like falling down is falling up/ Like loving you is just my luck/ Let's let down our guard so we can raise this love."

Tasteful bits of slide guitar segue into "Another True Fiction." The title track is one of those stunning, skin tingling moments in a music lover's life when they know they are listening to something special. It's like having something touch every sense in your mind that makes you want to fall to your knees to thank God for giving you ears to listen, a mind to comprehend and a heart to feel the music playing in your CD player. This is "Jeremy Toback's" shining musical gift to the world. No one else can better express the beauty of melancholy melody and musical poetry than he can.

The closest Jeremy gets to a full-out rock song is "Come Around," a smoking blues rocker with some old fashioned bar room piano adding to the texture. Greg Liesz's lap steel and Doug Wieselman's saxophone work bring in a barely noticeable, yet powerful, wall of sound in the mix. Toback's barely distorted vocals, and the anthemic chorus, ends on what is probably one of the best lyrical endings I've ever heard: "Now all good reason takes us closer to the edge/ So breathe deep baby/ Let love in and I'll come around." Toback's pop rock side comes back in "Green Light," and quickly morphs into the sultry and funky "Revelation," which features an eerie guitar gurgling just under the surface next to his fuzzy Fender bass lines.

Just when I thought "Another True Fiction" couldn't get my skin tingling any more than it had, my goose bumps were getting goose bumps. The last three tracks - "Through To Me," "Heaven Inside" and "Day Will Rise" - make this album one of the most powerful and moving albums of the year. "Through To Me" is a beautiful jumble of acoustic jamming, alternate tunings, exotic electronic textures and Toback's mournful singing. Toback the poet lays down some poignant and off-the-wall lyrics that make no sense when I read them, but if I listen to him sing the phrases, it ends up as more poetry: "All that we love resign/ Will beauty bloom/ Zoom Heaven inside" - see what I mean?

It is beautiful when he sings it though. He keeps up the mysterious word games: "I have been alone/ To hone idea strong stand/ I have been together/ Give in reason God send." Just reading the words from the lyric insert I'm lost, but oh, when he sings them, it all falls in place and makes perfect sense. That leads right into the ultra-funky "Day Will Rise," a wildly amusing and funk-filled 70s throwback. Clavinet, maracas, a Moog organ and an Ohio Players-sounding saxophone melts together in a slinky, head-bobbing song that leaves me hitting the replay button over and over and over. It is a shame that his vision and soulful music have been such a well kept secret, but not for much longer. By the time I see him at the Aerial Theater in Houston on October 17th, my secret will be out - "Mark my words."