Review Summary: All around the world statues crumbled for them.
Back in the mid to late 90’s Sugar Ray was considered by many to be the best thing since sliced bread. In the summer of 1997 their first hit single ‘Fly’ was topping the charts and being sung by giddy teenagers worldwide. However, like many bands from the era, they seem to have been somewhat forgotten. Those who have only heard their singles have probably already dismissed them as just another 90’s pop rock band, but albums like
Floored certainly suggest otherwise.
It’s no surprise that after the success of their biggest hit ‘Fly’, the band took the easy route and “sold out” on their next record. Although ‘Fly’ was a great track, the rest of
Floored gives us a healthy dose of the band’s roots. Their debut showed influences of hard rock and punk/hardcore and this album is no different. Some songs also follow the rap/rock formula. Although not in the same league as The Beastie Boys or Rage Against The Machine, songs like ‘American Pig’ and ‘Right Direction’ are quite enjoyable. They manage to mix heavy guitars with aggressive hip hop vocals smoothly without sounding too cheesy. Other songs like the cover song ‘Stand and Deliver’ have an old school punk vibe with choruses that even sound reminiscent of The Ramones. ‘Cash’ is similar but unfortunately it is too repetitive making it one of the weaker tracks. In fact, several of the songs suffer the same fate of displaying impressive musicianship, but ultimately being pulled down by redundancy. Thankfully none of the songs are awful, but some could have been made better with a little more creativity on the band’s part.
Vocalist Mark McGrath definitely gets the job done on this release. He doesn’t have the best singing voice and surely not the most unique, but he fits the songs perfectly. He proves in nearly every song that he’s a competent vocalist outside of the mainstream sound found on their singles. A great example would be ‘RPM’ as McGrath almost screams in the choruses, sounding like many bands you’d hear playing on your local rock stations. Let’s not forget however that there is a reason that ‘Fly’ became such a success. McGrath’s voice sounds pretty damn good on the band’s breakthrough single. The best way to describe the song is an alternative rock track with reggae and funk influences. It’s hard to picture anyone not enjoying it with it’s catchy hooks and McGrath’s laid back vocals.
Whether you’re looking to relive your 90’s childhood or you’re just in the mood for something different,
Floored is surely worth a listen. It’s the last album that showed us the true spirit of the band before they shifted gears towards a completely mainstream sound and it contains more variety than one might assume. As I mentioned before the album is nowhere near perfect, but it has some undeniably fun tracks that are good for what they are.
