Sugar Ray

It’d be easy for us to say Sugar Ray is just some collection of marginally talented California pretty boys whose success is the direct result of slick marketing and rock fans’ lowered expectations. But we’re nothing if not fair. After three albums that bordered on the unlistenable, Sugar Ray’s fourth effort is a marked improvement. The appealing, guitar-fed opener, “Answer the Phone” and the gushy ballad “Waiting” suggest they’ve at least mastered the art of modern rock. But that’s not much to get excited about. “Under the Sun” is dreadful, sentimental sludge that seems to believe name-checking bands from the ’80s and repeating the phrase “back in the day” over and over constitutes “kickin’ it old school.” The only thing worse is the aptly named “Disasterpiece,” which opens with a guitar riff lifted so blatantly from the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women” that Keith Richards oughta seek retribution with a meat cleaver. The drippy ska-lite vibe that coursed through their breakout hit “Fly” persists, but at least they’ve dumped the fourth-rate hardcore thrash that grated on previous albums. Hey, improvement’s improvement.