Disco de Sugar Ray: “Lemonade & Brownies”

I never really cared much for Sugar Ray. I remember getting 14:59 as a present a few years ago, and I wasn't too interested in most of the tracks. But then again, that's because most of the tracks were the annoying, cheesy teenybopper drama movie-esque acoustic pop filler. Although I must admit I enjoyed Someday, for the most part the only tracks on the CD I enjoyed were the songs that were more influenced by either funk-metal or heavy alternative rock (with all due respect to the open-minded musical variety on the album that I admired). Thus, I would usually skip to the songs Personal Space Invader, Aim for Me, Burning Dog and Glory. On rare occassion I'd listen to the track Someday, but I was very conservative about listening to the song, because at the time it would be played so many times on the radio. For the most part, I'd find myself popping in 14:59 on occassion to this day just to listen to those specific tracks, and it still sits on my shelf to this day.

Well, one night I was with a friend and I popped in 14:59 and skipped to Personal Space Invader. While we were listening intently, my friend said "That reminds me, I just found out something really awesome about this band." I asked what it was, and he told me "I know this may sound weird, but Sugar Ray actually used to be a heavy metal band." Then he told me about Lemonade and Brownies. So I finally bought it and popped it into my CD drive.

I was extremely blown away! Not a single track on the album was intolerable (well, the actual music tracks anyway). Nice, basic, crunching, straight from the soul grunge/metal aggression.

Just the other day I invited a different friend over, and we decided we'd want to listen to some music. So I showed him this album. He laughed upon first seeing it, saying "Sugar Ray? Ha! This cover looks just like what you might find on some American female pop singer's album." He only looked at me like I was a dolt when I told him the whole early Sugar Ray story.

So I popped the CD in and had him listen to it. BOY, did that make a believer out of him!

What puzzles me to this very day is why Sugar Ray don't ever produce albums like this anymore. I'd have to disagree with what someone here said, that this can't compare to their other albums and that they should have abandoned this awesome sound. I suppose I won't get into why I think their progression to other types of sound blew, but come on Sugar Ray, look at your fanbase now. None of these blowhard teenybopper valley dopes you have now would have DARED have anything to with the raw power of old school Sugar Ray.

If you've ever been to a Sugar Ray show (circa 1997-2001) you might have noticed that the crowd seems dumbfounded when songs from their debut album "Leomanade and Brownies" hit the amplifiers. Songs like "Mean Machine" and "Iron Mic" are so different from Sugar Ray's top 40 hits that it's amazing that they came from the same band. That's what makes this album so great. Produced by DJ Lethal (then of House of Pain, now of Limp Bizkit) and McG (then just a friend of Mark McGrath, now a big time director of Hollywood films such as Charlie's Angels) "Lemonade and Brownies" is raw and loud and will make you do a double take when you learn that it's Sugar Ray. DJ Lethal himself makes apperances on such amazing tracks as "Rhyme Stealer" and "10 Seconds Down", but the band also showed glympses that they could write material like "When It's Over" with material like "Hold Your Eyes" and "Dance Party USA". "L&B" essentially flopped when it was released, due to a lack of a marketing push and support, but don't let that fool you it's a great album! When "Fly" became Sugar Ray's break out hit a few years later, Mark McGrath originally threatened to quit the band because he wanted to stay true to the harder sounds of "L&B", but as an earlier reviewer put it...the rest of Sugar Ray convinced Mark that writing poppy material and touring before thousands is better than "keeping it real" and "flipping burgers for a living". Whatever the case, "Lemonade and Brownies" is for anyone looking for harder sounding Sugar Ray material that sounds like the song "RPM" from "Floored".

This CD is incredible! I love the hard core, heavy metal guitar riffs in "10 Seconds Down", "Mean Machine", "Rhyme Stealer", "The Greatest", and "Streaker". I also love "Scuzz Boots", a weird title for a love song and "Hold Your Eyes".

Their 2nd one, 'Floored', is great too. They improved on the lyrics ("Anyone" is inspirational, even through Mark's screaming) and on their tune. I love all the songs on this CD, but not "Fly" cuz I heard this song WAY too much back at 1997. Their cover on "Stand and Deliver" is hilarious.

'14:59' finally shows their transition from heavy metal to alternative (and/or pop). Lyrics are catchy and friendly for all ages, however, they ditched the heavy metal guitar riffs they started with (with an exception for "Falls Apart", "Glory", "Personal Space Invader", "Burning Dog" and "New Direction"). Who knows what we're gonna expect with their 4th album? Then again, what do we expect from Sugar Ray?

Becoming a Sugar Ray fan with when "14:59" came out, I decided to get "Floored" and "Lemonade and Brownies". Boy, was this not what I was expecting. This was out and out, bad @$$ rock.

It listened to it a few times, and it just isn't my cup of tea for everyday listening. However, when I've had a bad day or am doing some heavy duty cleaning, I pop this album in.

I have always loved this band, "Fly was the song that got me into them, but when i bought this with "floored" I was so happy that everything else was pretty much hard rock. When 14:59 came out, I was happy with it, but i still missed the hard rock/metal outfit. I miss this band, because they havent put out a strong album since S/T 5 years ago. Bottom Line, Buy it. And why is everyone so surprised about this, I knew it from the beginning, thats why i loved this band! so buy it and check out what used to be...