SUBLIME

Reviewed:

• 40oz. to Freedom (1992)
• Robbin' the Hood (1994)
• Sublime (1996)
• 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Sublime (2002, compilation)

40oz. TO FREEDOM          1992          (Skunk)

- Standouts: Most of it is pretty good, particularly 'Badfish', 'Smoke Two Joints' and 'Date Rape'.

My older brother was a big fan of Sublime in his mid-teens, but they never really did much for me until I became an adult. I'm not exactly a stoner, even if I do enjoy the occasional, cheeky 'you know what' every once in a while, but I like a lot of stoner music. 40oz. to Freedom might as well be the pothead's bible, as far as music goes. Well, this and maybe something by Cypress Hill - whatever, it's one of the definitive fusions of punk, ska and reggae you'll probably ever hear. And I'm sure I have memories of my brother telling me that the album - their debut - was originally released independently and became a classic rather quickly, sorta like Diamond Head and their Lightning to Nations record, not that Sublime sound anything like Diamond Head.

There's a few numbers on here that make regular playlists for me. I really can't get enough of 'Badfish' sometimes... it's just a cool, chilled-out reggae dopefest, and it's catchy! I really like the cover of Bad Religion's 'We're Only Gonna Die for Our Arrogance' too - Biohazard also covered the track on Urban Discipline the same year. Obviously their version is way harder-hitting than Sublime's, but Sublime's still keeps the tempo rolling fast while adding their own ska, flair to the tune. 'Don't Push' is a good-time, 'New Thrash' has that 'skate punk' sound of bands like Pennywise and NOFX, maybe a touch of early Offspring, and it's fun. 'Date Rape' goes full ska and features trumpets and saxophones, plus punk rock lyrics to boot. In all fairness, you won't find any sketchy material on here. 'KRS-One', which obviously references and samples the infamous rapper, kind of gets on my nerves at times, and I always thought having 22 songs on an album of this nature was going a bit overboard, but lengthy track-listings is just something Sublime did with their records. Like I said before, I'm no stoner, but this album gives me positives vibes. I dig it, and it makes great background music when chilling with mates at a BBQ, or just generally kicking back. It's a classic, though I wouldn't put it up there among punk's best ever albums. That's if you even consider 40oz. to Freedom to be a punk album more-so than it is ska. 

Adam's rating: 8/10

ROBBIN' THE HOOD          1994          (MCA)

- Standouts: 'Greatest Hits', 'Saw Red', 'Work That We Do', 'Cisco Kid', 'All You Need', 'Falling Idols'

I get that people generally regard most of Sublime's recordings to be classic material these days, but Robbin' the Hood I do have some issues with, especially when compared to the debut or it's self-titled followup. The album doesn't really even get going properly until track 4, 'Pool Shark', because the first bunch of 'songs' are essentially just made up of skits and samples. And 'Pool Shark' itself is short as hell too. 'Steppin' Razor' is kinda cool though, even if it does feel more like an instrumental than anything else. I'd also say that 'Greatest Hits' is one of my favourite Sublime tracks ever. The bass lines are killer, and Brad Nowell's vocal lines and melodies are absolutely spot-on and infectious as fuck. Just an excellent track from the 90's. And 'Saw Red', which features Brad duetting with Gwen Stefani ks extremely fun to say the least. Shame it's over in less than a couple of minutes. 'Work That We Do' is one of their better reggae songs, and a lot of the punkier ska tunes like 'All You Need' and 'Falling Idols' are great too, but I overall I just don't find the music on this album to be as listenable as what can be found on 40oz. to Freedom. There's far too much sampling and instrumental stuff which just annoys me after a while. I get that they made druggie music first and foremost (hell, drugs are what finally killed Brad, R.I.P.), but the actual musical performances are lacking in comparison to the debut album. The good songs on here, like 'Greatest Hits', are as good as anything from the previous record, but I've found myself sitting through a bunch of filler and re-recordings of older tracks  in order to really get to the good stuff on Robbin' the Hood. 

Adam's rating: 7/10

SUBLIME          1996          (MCA)

- Standouts: Basically everything.

The final album to come out of the trio before Brad Nowell's demise was this self-titled record. I always thought Robbin' the Hood featured a little too much fucking around instead of actual songs; thankfully, Sublime is, in my opinion, the best thing they ever put out. It takes advantage of most of the musical ideas they had on the past releases and results in songs that are generally just better across the board. It certainly has more radio-friendly tracks on it - it was by far their biggest seller - but for a band like Sublime, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. They came up with a reggae/ska/punk fusion that could be extremely infectious on past tracks like 'Badfish' and 'Greatest Hits', and this is further reinforced on songs like 'Wrong Way' and 'What I Got' from this third and final record. 'What I Got' really is one of my favourite 90's alternative singles of all time. I love it. The same can be said for the excellent 'Santeria' - it's Sublime perfecting what they came up with in the past and using that formula to write songs that insanely memorable and catchy whilst still sounding like true Sublime! Even the ska punk rockers like 'Seed' are better too. 'Garden Grove' has a lot of weird experimentation and sampling on it, kinda similar to the stuff I disliked about Robbin' the Hood, but on this album once again, it's just been pulled off better in nearly every way. And let's not forget about 'Doin' Time', another of their finest tracks of all time, with it's warm and laid-back summer vibes as well as it's dark undertones, a characteristic of Sublime's lyrics.

Any complaints? I guess the album is kinda one-dimensional, and sometimes I'm a miserable bastard that doesn't always want to hear nonsensical stoner music. Obviously the band disbanded shortly after the release of the album due to Nowell's tragic heroin overdose. Heroin sucks. I don't claim to be a die hard Sublime fan by any means, but I liked this album enough to pick it up on vinyl too. I totally recommend any rock fan to check it out, these are just good songs full-stop, and you don't have to be a pothead to really appreciate it either!

Adam's rating: 8.8/10

20th CENTURY MASTERS - THE MILLENNIUM COLLECTION: THE BEST OF SUBLIME          2002          (MCA)

This CD - the aptly titled 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Sublime (fuck me, that's a mouthful!) - is a compilation that for whatever reason only features 10 songs. Not exactly enough to summarise this band then, but at least each of those 10 songs are among their best. It is what it is. The only reason I have this in my collection is because I bought it for like less than £2 a few years back, and it reminded me just how good some of the songs this band wrote actually were, so at least it made me go out and buy their trilogy of studio albums.