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| Groupes: Sugar Ray | Discographie | 14:59 | Critiques |
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1997
The sophomore jinx is a rock & roll cliche, yet it rings true. Throughout rock history, artists that found themselves flush with sudden success have been at a loss to follow them up. At no time was that more true than the late '90s, when even major artists suffered from commercial slumps after delivering hit albums. A climate unfriendly to superstars was unlikely to warmly welcome young band with only one hit under the belts. For many observers, Sugar Ray would have been a textbook example of a '90s one-hit wonder. Their loping dancehall-pop hit "Fly" was an anomoly on Floored, as the rest of the album contained predictable (albiet accomplished) skate-metal and ska-punk. It was easy to think of "Fly" as their lone shot at stardom, and the group realizes this, slyly naming their followup 14:59, suggesting that they had only one second left in their 15 minutes of fame. They also take a shot at their hardcore fans, opening the record up with a bracing surge of death metal guitars entitled "New Direction." Like the album title, the song is a joke, but the funny thing is, Sugar Ray actually do take a new direction on 14:59, opening up their sound and demonstrating they're not a flash-in-the-pan. It matters not whether the record generates a hit or not-Sugar Ray have unexpectedly made a musical leap forward with their third album, discovering melodies while experimenting with sonic textures. Very little of the album is devoted to either ska or metal and only "Live & Direct" hints at the dancehall overtones of "Fly," thanks to a cameo from KRS-One. Instead, Sugar Ray fills the record with pop songs that groove. While there may not be a song as immediately catchy or indelible as "Fly," there's an unexpectedly high level of songcraft through 14:59, along with a gleeful blend of pop, rock, rap and reggae that is unabashedly fun. That's not to say that the record is perfect-when they get heavy, they sound stilted and the wacky cover of Steve Miller's "Abracadabra" interrupts the flow-but it is considerably more ambitious, successful and satisfying than the majority of records that have emerged from the Orange County funk/ska-metal scene. And, in some ways, that is more unexpected than the success of "Fly" itself. Owing to their different musical backgrounds, the members of Sugar Ray bring diverse influences to the table. But although their album "14:59" brings together elements of pop, dance, folk, hip-hop and more, their main priority is still the song itself. Vocalist Mark McGrath says, "At the end of the day, what we wanted to get back into the music was melody. Not to say that anything we've done resembles the brilliance of 'Pet Sounds', but the Beach Boys and those harmonies were in my head the whole time we were making the record, and I think that's reflected in the music." |
