Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 07/30/1996
Run Time: 59:58
Sublime's eponymous major-label debut arrived a few months after the band's leader,
Brad Nowell, died tragically of a heroin overdose. As a show of sympathy, the album tended to be slightly overrated in some critical quarters, who claimed that
Nowell was an exceptionally gifted lyricist and musical hybridist, but
Sublime doesn't quite support those claims. The trio does have a surprising grace in its unabashedly traditionalist fusion of Californian
hardcore punk, light
hip-hop, and
reggae. Switching between bracing
hardcore and slow, sexy
reggae numbers,
Sublime display supple, muscular versatility and, on occasion, a gift for ingratiatingly catchy hooks, as on the hit single
"What I Got." What they don't have is the vision -- either lyrical or musical -- to maintain interest throughout the course of the entire album.
Sublime sags when the band delves too deeply into their
dub aspirations or when their lyrics slide into smirking humor. The low moments don't arrive that often -- by and large, the album is quite engaging -- but they happen frequently enough to make the record a demonstration of the band's blossoming ability, but not the fulfillment of their full potential. Of course,
Nowell's death gives the record a certain pathos, but that doesn't make the album any stronger.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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