Nine Years Since this came out. Bradley Nowell, The Lead Singer Of Sublime, Died In 1996, but every day you can still here their music on the radio. Sublime Played their first gig in the summer of 1988, and since then, They've had Five great albums, and a lot of marijuana. Breeding Reggae and Punk Rock, Sublime was one of the only bands to blend these two genres together, and make it work.
This album was released just before their self titled release that put them into the mainstream. While I would still reccommend any other Sublime album over this one, This is still a solid album. Just not up to snuff compared to the others.
Sublime was a three, ahem, four piece band that Consisted Of:
Bradley Nowell - Vocals, Guitar
Eric Wilson - Bass
Bud Gaugh - Drums
Louie- Dalmation
The Cd Kicks off with the lyricless
Wating For Bud. With a nice Acoustic Lead and Steady bassline, It shows you just some of what sublime has to offer. Up Next Is
Stead B Loop Dub It's got turntables that remind me of most Beastie boys songs, and features some nice lyrics about halfway through. It's Not Much of a Song, and would definitely never be on the radio, but it's fun to listen to. The next track isn't a song, but a Soliloquy, (which, is a literary form in which a character talks to oneself without addressing the listener. - dictionary.com) Basically,
Raleigh Soliloquy pt I is about sucking cock, and it features a lot of nasty language. Don't leave this album running with little kids around.
The next song,
Pool Shark Delves into a different style of music than the previous tracks, featuring an electric guitar, and louder lyrics. It's short, but one of the better tracks on the album. After that song, we hear some percussion, followed by an undistorted electric guitar. This song,
Steppin' Razor, has Sublime's Signature sound in it, Sounding similar to such hits like What I Got and Santeria in ways. It's One of the albums best, and Unlike how many of the songs on this album go wrong, It's not too short. Clocking in at a reasonable 2:24. Another song that sounds a little more professional, and deserving is
Greatest-Hits It also is a nice not too short, not too long song, With a fast, fun bassline and great work on vocals by Bradley. On To another Loop Dub song, This One being named
Free Loop Dub It Changes Sounds A lot, and Isn't as fun to listen to as the others, but still has some nice aspects. Gets quite repetitive though. About 2/3 through the song, you hear gunfire, and Awww, **** Chuck's On A Killing Spree, which is pretty funny the first time you hear it. So Enjoy it once or twice, then skip away to....
Q-Ball. It's The Shortest song on the album, and basically just the signer rapping. only 0:43. After The Short Rap Interlude, My favorite song on the album starts -
Saw Red. It Features Gwen Stefani, Before her solo work mind you, back in the days of No Doubt. It's A Cheesy Kind of Love song, and Somewhat lacking in Length as it's under two minutes, but Something about just makes me love it. It could be the Ska Type Guitar, The Switching between singers, or the fast bassline, but I love it. I hope you do too, because I reccoommend it as the coolest song on this album. Next Is the Song
Work That We Do.It's one of the only songs on here that I don't Like very much. It's just kind of boring, the instruments are extremely mediocre, and the singing is just averege. There's lots of cutting out, and Instruments coming in and out at different times.
Lincoln Highway Dub is next, and if I'm not mistaken, the instruments in this, are playing pretty much the same song as Santeria, with some very minor changes, any Sublime Fan would Recognize it as Lyricless-Santeria. After Foreshadowing to a newer song, next we Switch back to an older song. After The Lincoln Highway Dub, We Hear an Acoustic Version Of Pool Shark. It's the same song, but I personally prefer the non-acoustic version better. All A Matter of Preference.
I love the intro to this next song,
Cisco Kid. The Song Itself is quite averege, but I love the first 45 seconds beyond belief. Listening to it now, The Song isn't that bad, it's only fault is an annoying horn instrument coming in randomly. At times the singer sounds like Chris Rock. It's fun listening to short clips of Cisco Kid Though.
After this song, is the next installment of the Raleigh Soliloquy, this time it's
Raleigh Soliloquy Pt II. This Time Around, he basically, just insults you. I love listening halfway through, and having some security guard arguing with him, to "Cool It Down" Obviously, he needs it, as the song has the F Word Twenty Three times by my count, among other obscenities. After His 911 Call, We Hear the song
STP. It's a fine song, but Sounds much like all the others, so doesn't stand out much until about two minutes into the song where it speeds up, and sounds much better at that time.
Boss DJ is an all acoustic song, that features nothing other than Bradley and his guitar. It's got some nice vocals, but I personally would have preferred to have some sort of percussion and bass. Still nice to listen to. The Next Track Is A Joke. And I find It Hilarious. Entitled
I Don't Care Too Much For Reggae Dub As Far as I can tell, It's just the band in a conversation with some random passerby. Correct me on this if i'm wrong. EIther way, Hearing "Can One Of Ya'll Spare 20 Cents" and "I Chose this profession So Therefore I Earn Beer" Cracked Me Up. It was also funny that they didn't know how to classify what genre they played. This is definitely worth a listen. After That, comes a very, very, very, Cool Instrumental called
Falling Idols. I Initally skipped it because I wasn't sure I would like an instrumental. Listening to it later though, I loved it. AMAZINGLY fun guitar work in this song. It's more of A Punk song than most of the others on the album. It also has great bass throughout the song.. and the drumming too. Hell, I love all of em. Something about the guitar work, reminds me of the Offspring.
Next Is The Song
All You Need It sounds like a ska song, which I usually love, but this one isn't my favorite. The Lyrics are Pretty weak, and the song blends in with the others on the album, making it easy to forget.
I think you'll recognize this next guitar part in the next song,
Freeway Time In LA county Jail This song is also all acoustic, and only features Bradley with no Percussion or Bass. My Feelings about it are basically the same as Boss DJ. It's a good song as is, but it could have been great with something more than what it offers.
The Third Trilogy in the all acoustic songs,
Mary offers exactly what the other two offers. If you like Acoustic Ballads, you'll have fun with this album, that's for sure.
Another trilogy ending, The Closer to the album is the longest track,
Raleigh Soliloquy Pt III This song includes Raleigh Lecturing about Love then breifly singing, or trying to.
After some blank space, we hear a hidden reggae track, which is actually a very good track, i reccomend taking a listen.
All Sublime: The album is a fine representation of Subilme as a band, If you want to start listening to Sublime, Buy the S/T release first, then get the others.
Not as Sublime: Lots Of Weird tracks On here. All Of these were recorded in random living rooms, so you can't really blame em for some poor quality. Besides, the song quality is surprisingly good.
Individual Tracks Reccommendations:
For the Punk/Rock Lover: Saw Red, Falling Idols
For the Acoustic Lover: Boss DJ
For the Sublime Lover: Everything!
Anyway, I realize this Review isn't the best, but if you look at my first review, you'll see that this is a HUGE improvement. I wasn't sure how to do bold letters, so I'm not sure what it'll do at this point.
Also, If you like Sublime, check out The Bassists' and drummer's new band, The Long Beach Dub All Stars. Not Quite as good, but some fans might like them.
