Up next on the chopping block is a band that definitely had some hits in the mid to late 90’s but when you listen to those albums, it’s certainly not what you would expect. The band in question is Sugar Ray and I’ve been somewhat curious as to how their albums sound beyond what people know. This was a suggestion/request so with that let’s take a look……
Lemonade And Brownies- so this one has a lot of Nu metal with some funk mixed in. It’s definitely a very fun album and as I said earlier, it’s certainly not what one would expect. I’ll give this one 8/10
Standouts: The Greatest, Rhyme Stealer, Caboose
RPM- so for this one, you again have a few different styles going on. You’ve still got the Nu metal and funk but there’s also some reggae and a little bit of hip hop. Now this is the album that gave us the song Fly but aside from that, the rest of the album doesn’t sound like that at all. It’s really a cool and different album than what one would expect. I’ll give this one 9/10
Standouts: Breathe, Speed Home California, RPM
14:59- I feel like with this one, they were clearly trying to experiment with different things and it’s got more of a reggae/pop feel to it. The first song I guess is their attempt to do a death metal song and it’s actually not bad but the rest of the album definitely has more pop feel to it. Overall, good not great and I’ll give it 7/10
Standouts: New Direction, Personal Space Invader, Glory
Sugar Ray- OK so this is absolutely a straight up pop record. No more nu metal sound, no more funk, none of that we are officially in pop music territory. I gotta say I didn’t really enjoy this one a whole lot. Sure there are a couple moments and bright spots but as a whole, I just couldn’t get into it. I’ll give this one 5/10
Standouts: Stay On
In The Pursuit Of Leisure- again, another kind of softer pop album. Clearly they have found a formula and are sticking with it, which is evidenced by this album and the album before. Again, there might be a couple of bright spots and OK moments but overall, I couldn’t get into this one either. I’ll give this one 4/10
Standouts:
Music For Cougars- OK I’m not gonna lie this is actually a pretty good record title. Now again, they’re still sticking to that kind of pop, kinda softer rock sound. Sure the opening song is a reggae song but the rest of the album is softer. I will say that the opening song is catchy, but as far as the rest of the album goes, it’s nothing really special and again it gets boring after a while. I’ll give this one 5/10
Standouts: Girls Were Made To Love
Little Yachty- I guess clearly they were trying to make a yacht rock album and they definitely succeeded here. This is definitely an album I would put on if I was driving around in a yacht, but since I’m too poor to afford a yacht, I can only imagine that this kind of record would be played while driving one. I’m not too familiar with the yacht rock genre but again I would imagine that this is that kind of album. I couldn’t really get into it. It’s a very relaxed sounding album and while I don’t mind those kind of albums, I just thought this was OK at best. I’ll give this one 5/10 because it made me want to relax
Standouts:
This isn’t a bad band per se, but they definitely had some really great albums at the start and then it just all kind of went downhill from there. I did read somewhere that Mark McGrath said he doesn’t really wanna go back to their older sound because he’s older now and I can respect that but at the same time these albums are just kind of boring. Again though, the first three albums are so are great so if you really want to go and listen to this band, I highly recommend those albums.
Final Grade: C
- RPM
- Lemonade And Brownies
- 14:59
- Sugar Ray
- Music For Cougars
- Little Yachty
- In The Pursuit Of Leisure
Sinister Reviews 