Since the passing of former frontman Bradley Nowell, Sublime has been lost. They’ve put out as much of their live, obscure, and unreleased footage featuring Nowell as they possibly can. Their latest inclusion is entitled Brad Nowell and Friends. They naturally release these new albums for the benefit of their fans. However, the decision to market poorly recorded acoustic sets leaves me wondering just when the band members will move on and try to record on their own without using Sublime as a shelter to hide their lack of musical creativity. The high points of the album are constantly overshadowed by the quality of sound, as is the case with the covers of Bob Marley’s “Guava Jelly” and “This Train”. The album’s final track, “Pool Shark”, is a great tune, but once again falls short due to the recording quality.
Sublime experienced the worst when they lost Brad to a heroin overdose. However, just because they reached their pinnacle after his death does not mean that they should continue to release every bit of Sublime out there. Hopefully they will realize this after releasing such an average disc that can only serve to pacify old fans instead of gaining new ones. Sublime chooses great songs, but the equipment used while recording just cannot cut it in this day of digital everything. I think that a release from the Dub All-Stars, Sublime’s new project, would be more satisfactory than a release of closet material that falls short in every category.
+ rick hinkson
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