Sugar Ray

Once upon a time, there was a rock band called Sugar Ray. Then, they had a single – ‘Every Morning’ – that plastered itself to the airwaves’ A lists and sold truckloads all over the place. Now, in the proverbial early afternoon, Sugar Ray release album number four – an extremely poppy rock effort – all acoustic riffs ’n’ rhythm, smooth vocals courtesy of the appropriately gorgeous Mark McGrath and summertime anthem-type “la la la la” choruses.

While this is all well and good, the unfortunate bit is that, really, it isn’t. Put simply, the songs are samey, repetitive and just (bluntly) un-great; a standard that the pop world would expect them to live up to. The vocal melodies seem to base themselves around approximately three notes, lyrics are of the Swedish producer variety and the guitar licks, whilst effective in the context, aren’t the sort that jump up out of nowhere and scream for your audience. The sickly sweet pop route they’ve selected for this album’s direction doesn’t seem to be the most appropriate for their talents. Too much Sugar, not enough Ray.