REVIEW: Tonic, Sugar (Universal)
- Paul Hanson
Following up a smash debut can't be easy. You have lots of time to write, and rewrite, the songs that end up on the debut, but in the music industry today, long periods of inactivity allow trends and the flavor of the month to change. Look at Def Leppard, Scorpions, and Motley Crue, all bands that have either changed their style to catch up or resorted to rehashing their old songs and releasing them in altered formats, like a live album.
Tonic's Lemon Parade caught me by surprise. I wasn't expecting to like it, but I always found it an above-decent album. It's been a while since I listened to it, but I still have a soft spot for its single "If You Could Only See." The song has personal meaning to me because I think of the song being sung from a friend of mine's perspective, talking about his 'better half.'
So now, faced with following up a commercially successful debut, what's a band to do? Tonic's answer is to write strong songs, write them well, and give the fans that were devoted to their 1st album additional songs to cherish. There are multiple gems here, starting with opener "Future Says Run" which is followed by the American Pie soundtrack anthem "You Wanted More." "Mean to Me" ventures near "If You Could Only See" territory with the lyrics, "There's an empty place inside that is hurting/ Place that keeps my heart . . ./ Why do you have to drag me down to make me see."
And like the lyrics, the music here is sharp. There's not a virtuoso in the band, no "Guitar Player of the Year" candidate, but I don't hear Tonic as a band that's concerned with winning awards. Instead, they want to write good songs. And on Sugar they have.
