REVIEW: Sublime, Sublime (MCA)
- Sean Eric McGill
I wasn't overly familiar with Sublime until their latest self titled major-label debut came across my desk. Now, considering how great the album is, coupled with the death of vocalist/songwriter/guitarist Brad Nowell - I wish I had been around for more.
Sublime isn't an easy album to pin down in terms of style. By mixing a variety of influences - ranging between dance hall, rap, metal and reggae - into their music, Nowell and his fellow bandmates (Eric, bass; Bud, drums) have formed an interesting musical hybrid. It's a style that at many times recalls the work of past performers such as Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix - but also embraces newer movements in music such as rap and hard rock, which may not sound like it works, but the band pulls it together nicely. The samples flow freely, the guitars are crunchy - and almost everything has a reggae edge to it.
Nowell writes with such a reggae-based groove on almost all of the songs on Sublime, that it's hard not to go along with him. I hate to sound trite, but you really groove to this album. Eric's basslines (the entire band is known only by their first names, by the way) provide the perfect backing for Nowell's sing-song lyrical work. The songs themselves cover a variety of topics, from the obligatory songs about women to more unusual fare, such as "April 29, 1992 (Miami)" and "Pawn Shop". The first deals with the ensuing riots that spread throughout major cities in America following the Rodney King verdict, and the latter
- well, it's a song about a pawn shop. Not usual musical fare on an album of this type - and Nowell's songwriting never takes the subject too seriously. While many others have done songs from the point of view of a looter - none have ever done it with such a flair.Sublime is one of the best releases of the year - and odds are that it will be the band's last. And I really don't know what's worse - that young and talented musicians continue to follow a path of self-destruction, or that we're no longer surprised.
