|
14:59
01/12/1999 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Wendy Hermanson
Sugar Ray, the band most recipient of silly punnage for the past two years (that's what you get when you give your massive hit single a name that's a verb, noun, and slang adjective all in one), is truly a strange candidate for stardom. After all, these guys have never taken themselves seriously. They're from Newport Beach, Calif., probably the whitest 'burb in America, and (God bless them) they've never tried to pretend they are from somewhere cooler--i.e. sister town Huntington Beach, adopted home of numerous hardcore bands such as Korn and members of Anthrax. Furthermore, Sugar Ray weren't snobby about where they got their start. This band played the UN-coolest places possible: frat parties, glossy-clean Newport dance clubs, and other places Scott Ian and his ilk wouldn't deem to darken. Having gotten away with that little piece of chutzpah, the band was sufficiently ballsy to rip off Sublime (and that would be circa '96 Sublime; not even the cool "Pool Shark"-era stuff), become insanely popular for one out-of-character ditty, and basically personify the term "one-hit wonder." They-surprisingly--also learned from all of this, and therefore will probably be able to escape the 15-minute curse. Sugar Ray's third album, which due to the relative inattention paid to their 1996 debut will be construed by many as their sophomore effort, finally delivers exactly what everyone seems to want: mellow, catchy stuff as the rule rather than the exception. Unlike the aforementioned Sublime, Sugar Ray have not fared well mixing hardcore with toasty grooves--far too many were confused by the stark, one-off of their hit amongst the crash and boom of 1997's Floored. So, this time around, they condensed their punk urge into one 47-second intro song (the tongue-in-cheek, aptly named "New Direction"), and boned up on melody and harmony instead. 14:59 is for the most part midtempo, with lots of glammy '80s influences (Who the hell covers Steve Miller's "Abracadabra?" And covers it straight? But it works!). The gloriously sweet, almost doo-woppy "Someday" and singalong first single "Every Morning" far surpass the original hit. Dare I call them super-fly?
|
