Send "Sugar Ray " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Ew |
 Mark McGrath & Co. are back after six years with Music for Cougars, and still churning out affable pop-rock for various beer-commercial activities (beach volleyball, slo-mo water-balloon fights). And though aphorisms like ''If you wanna see the rainbow/You gotta sit through a little rain'' don't exactly blow the doors of perception wide open, tracks like the reggae-tinged ''Girls Were Made to Love'' and Sublime-lite ''Boardwalk'' are all in good-natured, hey-brah fun. B–...full text |
| Latimesblogs |
| It's anyone's guess why this L.A. pop-rock act -- a huge commercial draw in the late '90s but one that hasn't released a new studio disc since 2003's comparatively soft-selling "In the Pursuit of Leisure" -- chose this moment of worldwide economic instability to stage a comeback: With a long line of barely distinguishable hits such as "Fly," "Someday" and "Every Morning," Sugar Ray soundtracked the boom-times brio of the pre-9/11 era more enthusiastically than anybody else. In their original incarnation, these guys made Smash Mouth look like prophets of doom. Not surprisingly, the last few years haven't done much to dampen Sugar Ray's spirit. On the dreadfully (if quite frankly) titled "Music for Cougars," singer Mark McGrath and his bandmates still sport the party-hearty attitude of freshly minted dot-com millionaires in a dozen uptempo tunes about rainbows, boardwalks and how she's got the woo-hoo (whatever that means)....full text |
| Absolutepunk |
| Strange to think the 90's were nearly ten years ago. Still feels like it was yesterday when Spice Girls and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were on the face of every cereal box, and interns fellating presidents was still the punchline of every late-night talk show host in America. By the time grunge had perished and nu-metal & boy bands were just starting to squeeze their way into the TRL rotation, radio exploded with a crop of alternative rock bands from all over the map -- and while many of them only managed to milk a few hits from an album or two, their legacy on every young person's iTunes playlist continues to live on. So much in fact, that it appears on this tenth anniversary of 1999, they are all making a another valiant effort to splash around in the modern music scene. Third Eye Blind, Vertical Horizon, Marcy Playground, Collective Soul, Our Lady Peace -- even Sister freakin' Hazel! Each band scored at least one lucrative hit between 1996 and 1999, and each is returning this summer with a new album in tow. Coincidence? Perhaps... or maybe this whole neon/crunkcore business is just not cutting it for these former VH1 mainstays -- not to mention the entire world! That's why it's somewhat of a surprise to see Sugar Ray joining the same ranks, presenting the world with their first record since their last abysmal release, 2003's In the Pursuit of Leisure, which was -- for whatever it was worth -- a failed execution in pop experimentation. Sugar Ray might be seen as a frat boy playlist band, thanks to their stack of late-90's hits like "Fly" and "Every Morning," but in all actuality, this O.C. quintet knows their way around a solid hook and doesn't shy away from being influenced by the radio-pop of the '60's and '80's. Music For Cougars (one of the most straightforward, and aptly-named, album titles in recent memory) makes it clear that the band is keeping things bright & formulaic in the best way possible, much like their criminally-underrated self-titled 2001 album. Chockful of whimsical, sunshine-drenched pop numbers, Cougars is tailor-made for any fan of summertime ecstasy. First single, "Boardwalk," sounds like the kind of bubblegum hit that oldies radio feasts upon, and Mark McGrath's soulfully sweet vocals have just the right touch of tenderness to make songs like "Love 101" soar....full text |
Sugar Ray lyrics
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