Sugar

Lemon Parade For the intro to "Open Up Your Eyes," Tonic's lead guitarist, Jeff Russo, pulls off a wicked little flirtation with the riff from "Badge," and when his guitar gently weeps on "If You Could Only See," Tonic sound enough like Cream-era Clapton to take you back 20 years. The point i...	Head on Straight Los Angeles pop-rock trio Tonic's choice of Bob Rock as producer of their third disc is an odd one. Rock is a meat-and-potatoes studio man known for dialing up the thud quotient (see Metallica, the Cult, and especially, Veruca Salt), while Tonic is noted for its sweeping power ba...	Cigarettes & Gasoline	Everything You Want If R.E.M. hadn't already blazed the trail years ago, Vertical Horizon's Everything You Want would be a seminal album, with its earnest harmonies, fluid melodies, and jangly guitars. And while Vertical Horizon may not have taken many forks off the road to Athens, they have whipped...	Viva La Vida To say there has been a lot of anticipation for Coldplay's fourth album, Viva La Vida, is an understatement. Having enlisted legendary leftfield producer Brian Eno, borrowed their album title from a painting by renowned Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and made tantalising remarks abou...
Third Eye Blind	Who We Are Who We Are is another set of rousing anthems from this reflective trio. On their fourth full-length, the Los Angeles three-piece sets the template for a harder-rocking effort with dynamic opener "Disarray," in which singer/guitarist Jason Wade admits he doesn't know where he's go...	Yourself or Someone Like You The sound of Southern rock gets a facelift for the '90s on Yourself or Someone Like You, the record that made Florida's Matchbox 20 a success story. Rob Thomas's charismatic and passionate vocal delivery carries this collection of captivating, personal-story songs, based on hone...	Pet Your Friends	3 Doors Down "We're not a band that just goes through the motions," says Chris. "We go at everything hard. What I'm most proud of about the new album is we left ourselves a way out. Everybody hit the proverbial brick wall. Everybody fell down and everybody got back up, then we all went ba...

Awesome
After listening to this album only once, it went into my collection of all time favorites. Everyone song is a winner. I actually preferred this one to Lemon Parade. Usually, artists don't top their first album, but this one blows it away! Faves are "You Wanted More", "Mean to Me", "Waltz with Me", "Future Says Run". Heck, the whole dang album is my favorite!

A flicker in the dying embers of post-grunge...
It's a shame that Tonic aren't around any more. Perhaps it's because there isn't enough of a market any more for light rock with an emotional undertone that is significant enough to be evocative to its fans without resorting to saturating itself in a sense of sorrow, self-pity or pseudo-hardship. Tonic are much more subtle than that kind of stuff, but the principal strengths of Sugar are the melodically powerful riffs, and the vocal nuances that Emerson Hart adopts, particularly clearly in 'Queen' and 'Top Falls Down'. This was an underrated band and I highly recommend this album.

One of my favorite albums EVER. A Slam Dunk
This cd didn't leave my cd player for nearly a year. Every single song is solid as a rock. And not one of them sounds the same as the next. Stand out for me is the title track. You know how there are always songs you skip over on cds? Not on this one. Would buy it again and again. Miss you, Tonic.

One of the best albums of the '90s
Sugar is one of the great records of the '90s, in fact its in my personal top ten. The rock songs are instantly catchy and the ballads have a quiet depth lyrically and musically. The overall quality of the songwriting is outstanding. Their previous album was uneven with some rock'n'roll highpoints, 'Sugar' is all quality. The followup to 'Sugar' is 'Head on Straight', while not quite as smooth as 'Sugar' it too is a worthy addition to any rock and roll record collection.

Tonic deliver the goods again...
A alchemic blend of rock-anthems and melancholy musings, this album from trio Tonic is even better than Lemon Parade. This really is the thinking man's rock in a world quickly sinking beneath the nu-metal and hip-hop deluge. It's an eclectic sound...somewhere between Paul Simon and Live, with perhaps a dash of Crowded House. In equal turns both soothing and inspiring, this album is the latest in my collection from a Band that continues to grow and explore. My personal favourite tracks are Knock Down Walls, which growls and drives with a 'still-humming-it-3-hours-later' chorus, Queen, which is both subtle, and rock-out fun, and Waltz With Me, a rythmic, gentle love song that is touching without getting slushy. Yeah, I have favourites, but I love every song on this album...its one that I'll stick in my player and realise only when I come to switch it later that its already played through 3 times. More upbeat than Lemon-Parade, I'd highly recommend this to fans and new-comers alike.