Sugar Ray: 14:59

Of the nation's current hitmakers, Sugar Ray is among the least likely to stay true to anything resembling an artistic vision. Its 1995 debut, Lemonade And Brownies, was a listless collection of dopey funk-metal that needed a naked, provocatively positioned woman on its cover to garner any attention. Two years later, the Orange County band struck gold with a lazily paced, reggae-tinged novelty song—"Fly" didn't really fit in on Floored, the album from whence it came—so now, instead of metal, Sugar Ray has unleashed an onslaught of "Fly"-style sequels on the new 14:59. That title has won the band praise for its sense of irony (Sugar Ray must be self-aware if it refers to its 15 minutes of fame in its album title, right), but there isn't much irony to be found on the record's faithful cover of The Steve Miller Band's "Abracadabra." Miller sounds like a major influence throughout much of 14:59; if you didn't know better, you'd swear "Ode To The Lonely Hearted" was his song, too. Then there's the single, "Every Morning," which picks up precisely where "Fly" left off, complete with a similar assortment of samples, loops, slack beats, and all the energy of an Eagles reunion. Upset that Sublime's corpse won't be further strip-mined to produce many more posthumous albums Try "Someday." All this stuff is bound to prolong Sugar Ray's much-discussed 15 minutes, and if it doesn't, it's not for lack of trying: When it's not rearranging last year's hits, 14:59 gives you a guest rap by KRS-One ("Live & Direct") and pays homage to good old '80s kitsch (the Devo-esque "Personal Space Invader"), while never really straying from the party-friendly vibe radio has taught you to know and love. Sugar Ray's baseball-cap-clad fans will likely enjoy the newfound continuity, but for everyone else, the big hand can't hit the 3 soon enough.