The Best of Sugar Ray

Performer: Sugar Ray (Rock)
Producer: Don Gilmore; McG; David Kahne; Sugar Ray (Compilation)
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Even Sugar Ray are probably surprised that they lasted as long as they did, since their third album was winkingly titled 14:59, a reference to Andy Warhol's "fifteen minutes of fame." It wasn't until two albums and several years later that the group finally went on an extended hiatus due to model-handsome lead singer Mark McGrath's gig as the co-host of a TV entertainment show Extra. 2005's 15-track career overview, accommodatingly titled THE BEST OF SUGAR RAY, contains all of their hits, a handful of album tracks, and three new songs: the summery "Shot of Laughter," a pleasant take on Cyndi Lauper's '80s classic "Time After Time," and the almost punky "Psychedelic Bee," which recalls the earliest tracks gathered here. Those songs, like "Mean Machine" and "Rhyme Stealer," are a reminder that Sugar Ray was originally an early entry in the artistic deadend of rap-metal, before 1997's pop-oriented "Fly" forever changed them into an unapologetic singles band. Thereafter they churned out a run of three to four minutes slices of pop bliss, the most essential of which are gathered here.

What do you get when you have a singer with movie-star good looks (Mark McGrath) fronting a hard-edged pop band? In Sugar Ray's case, that formula spelled massive commercial success during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After starting off as a power chord-driven hard-rock band, Sugar Ray softened their sound, and scored big with such ska-tinged pop ditties as "Fly" and "Every Morning."

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