Review Summary: Sugar Ray just made a Reggae album... and didn't fuck it up!
Sugar Ray hadn't had the best last decade. From the loss of two of their original members, to then encountering legal issues with both of those former members. By the time 2012 had rolled around, lead singer Mark McGrath had said the legal issues left him feeling that he would never be able to make another Sugar Ray album ever again. Of course, those legal issues would eventually be resolved and by 2017 McGrath, Sheppard, and two new members introduced in 2014-2016 would begin work on a new album. After that, the band went somewhat silent for awhile, only to pop up again in 2019 and release their new album
Little Yachty.
Like many of Sugar Ray's previous albums, the title is mostly a slight clapback. It is both a reference to rapper Lil Yachty, and a reference to criticism that their music is nothing but "Yacht Rock". Well when you're given a title like that, what's the best thing to do? Of course, you make an entire Reggae album designed almost solely for listening to on yachts and beaches. It's that level of fun that makes
Little Yachty such a great album to listen to. Of course, that doesn't mean every track is a banger.
Coconut Bay is an absolute cringe-fest, with vocalist McGrath attempting a Jamaican accent that is so unintentionally bad and tone deaf one can't help but laugh. Other songs like
Good Good Lovin and
Trouble have issues with the vocals sometimes going off rhythm and hurting the songs in the process.
Criticism's aside,
Little Yachty has a lot of great tunes that showcase a band past it's prime still managing to make great music.
Sunday Love is a great anthemic tune with some great synthesizer effects and a nice tropical electric guitar beat.
What The World Needs is a cheesy "why can't we all just be friends" anthem straight out of the 70's free-love movement; and yet it's infectious percussion and soft vocals make it an addicting song to listen to.
Highest Tree is a solid opener for the album as a whole, with some great ukulele strumming and fun percussion.
California Gold is a surprising song on the album, mostly due to it being a throwback to their
14:59 days of soft Pop Rock rather than full-blown island Reggae like the rest of the album. Yet the tune's use of piano and trumpets, set against McGraths epic crescendos, leave one unable to imagine this album without the track.
The highlight of the album, surprisingly, isn't even an original song by the band. Their cover of
Escape (The Pina Colada Song) is absolutely sublime and does a good job of transforming the song while honoring it's legacy and not drifting too far off the artistic ledge. It has switched from live instruments to modern digital sequences, so if you are a person who loves the song but gets a little tired of the more dated recording of the original, going to Sugar Ray's cover on this record will make you love it all over again.
Expecting a new Sugar Ray record to be the second commercial coming of the band, or expecting some artistic statement backed by their current independent status, is folly. Even McGrath and Sheppard have quietly acknowledged that their time in the major spotlight is over. The thing that makes this band so great, however, is that they just don't care. They didn't care when fans got mad over them ditching their Funk-Metal roots, they didn't care when critics wrote off their
Fly single as "15 minutes of fame", and they certainly don't give a crap now. All this band has ever wanted to do is make whatever kind of music they are into at the time.
Little Yachty isn't trying to be anything more than a fun tropical album for those days when you're relaxing on the beach, or riding on a boat into the open ocean. That's fine. The part that really hits the most though, is this realization that nobody ever expected...
Sugar Ray just made a Reggae album... and didn't fuck it up!
