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Sugar Ray can sometimes try too hard to seem younger than their years, pushing the dance beats a little bit too hard, and Mark McGrath relies on some unseemly Auto-Tune, but even with this too-evident aural botox, the group remains a guilty pleasure that's a bit hard to resist.
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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).
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These days, of course, the documentary vibe of the band's earlier stuff has transformed into an air of escapism -- not for nothing is one track titled "When We Were Young." But that hardly detracts from the crafty throwaway pleasures at which Sugar Ray still excels; in fact, it actually provides a touch of sweetness that helps temper McGrath's innate sleaze factor.
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A more mature direction for the music seems to be a good next step, since by this point the band is literally declaring an aging target market in an album title.
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Overall, Sugar Ray sticks to what it does best: helping audiences realize that there's no better alternative to a California fun-in-the sun day at the beach.
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On their sixth album they're still turning out pop rock so good-natured it practically gives you a big smile and a fist-bump.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 4 out of 6
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Mixed: 0 out of 6
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Negative: 2 out of 6
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Nov 25, 2021A very good album by Sugar Ray, I love their cover of Escape, and their other songs are just as good