14:59 is the third studio album by American rock band Sugar Ray, released on January 12, 1999. The album shows the band moving into a more mainstream sound, due to the success of their single "Fly" off their prior album Floored, and its title self-deprecatingly references the "15 minutes of fame" critics claimed the band was riding on. It entered the top 20 on the Billboard 200, peaking at number 17 and being certified triple-platinum by the RIAA.
Background
During the writing sessions for their second album Floored, Sugar Ray wrote a much poppier track, the reggae ballad "Fly". The track's massive surprise success inspired the band to further pursue softer sounds on their following album, 14:59. McGrath admitted "Fly" was "the blueprint now for experimentation".
Music and lyrics
14:59 is described as an alternative rock and pop rock album. It features elements of styles such as acoustic pop, Caribbean music, circus music, death metal, funk, electronica, hip hop, psychedelia, new wave, punk rock, reggae and ska.
"Aim for Me" is a fast punk rock track in the vein of The Clash or Green Day, while "Falls Apart" and "Personal Space Invader" take influence from the Police's Synchronicity and new wave band Men Without Hats. and has also been described as having elements of funk rock/funk metal, like with some of the songs from the band's first two records. "Every Morning" has been called an acoustic pop number, "Abracadabra" is a cover of a 1981 song by blues rock act the Steve Miller Band.
The album features two comedic songs titled "New Direction" as album openers and closers, the former being in the vein of death metal and the latter a circus music instrumental. The death metal opening track was written with the intention of scaring the new listeners Sugar Ray had attracted on the strength of "Fly", and also parodies how the band were expected to go in a more accessible direction on this album.
Despite having a different overall sound than previous albums, Sheppard noted that the band still had the same lighthearted approach to music as before, saying: "we're not begging to be taken seriously. We'd feel stupid. We've been doing interviews for years saying we don't take ourselves seriously. It would be lame for us to say, 'Now we are'. We're still pranksters, just the lyrical content is more serious." The single "Falls Apart" lyrically revolves around a troubled teenage girl, with McGrath saying in 1999 "high school wasn't the best for everybody, so this follows the life of a girl in high school and the ups and downs of what you can go through." He added that "I think it's more about me, but I'm scared to talk about myself so I put it in the third-person [about a] girl."
Touring and promotion
Sugar Ray toured throughout 1999 and 2000 to support the album. Their first show of 1999 was on January 22, at the Snow Summit Resort in Big Bear Lake, California. This show was as part of MTV's "Snowed In 1999". From February 1999 to March 1999, they toured the United States with hip hop musician Everlast and the rap rock band 2 Skinnee J's. Sugar Ray then did their first tour of Japan in May 1999, and played at a string of summer festivals in the United States, before cancelling a scheduled appearance at Woodstock '99. Regarding their cancelled appearance at Woodstock '99, McGrath said in 2016, "my throat gave away. My doctor goes, 'You either finish your tour or you go to Woodstock.' I went, 'Let's finish the tour.'". After cancelling their appearance at Woodstock '99, they toured the United States with Fastball and The Goo-Goo Dolls, with this tour lasting between July 1999 and August 1999. On October 28, 1999, Sugar Ray performed at the inaugural WB Music Awards in Las Vegas, which featured David Bowie, Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, Kid Rock, *NSYNC and Smash Mouth. While in Australia, McGrath and Sheppard guest programmed the music video show Rage, where they picked videos from 311, The Rolling Stones, A, Oasis, Bad Brains, The Jam, Bijou Phillips, Finley Quaye and Bob Marley. Later that year, Sugar Ray played one-off shows in Malaysia and the Pacific island of Guam. Artists that Sugar Ray shared bills with during the touring cycle include 311, Barenaked Ladies, Blondie, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Edwin McCain, Imperial Teen, Jessica Simpson, Lou Bega, Luscious Jackson, Mandy Moore, Melissa Etheridge, Natalie Merchant, Save Ferris and Smash Mouth. The band still continued to play some of their more metal-influenced songs from Floored and Lemonade and Brownies, and would continue to do so on later tours.
In 2000, they collaborated with hip hop group Tha Alkaholiks to create a new version of their song "Make Room", from 1993's 21 & Over. This was for the Loud Rocks album, which featured other collaborations between hip hop artists and rock/metal bands. DJ Homicide had briefly been a member of Tha Alkaholiks in the early 1990s, prior to joining Sugar Ray. In 2000, Sugar Ray also recorded a cover of the 1990 song "Spinning Away", by progressive rock artists Brian Eno and John Cale, with this cover appearing in the Leonardo DiCaprio film The Beach. Later in 2000, Sugar Ray and Rosie O'Donnell did a cover of the Christmas song "Silver Bells", which appeared on her Christmas album Another Rosie Christmas.
In October 1998, three months before 14:59s release, Sugar Ray's cover of "Abracadabra" was included on Sabrina the Teenage Witch: The Album. which was a soundtrack album for the WB series of the same name. In July 1998, the 14:59 song "Burning Dog" had also appeared on the soundtrack for the Warner Bros. film The Avengers, with the soundtrack album being released by the band's label Atlantic. The version of "Burning Dog" that appears on The Avengers soundtrack has more of a techno influence than the 14:59 version, and is titled "Burnin' Dog (Don't Pet A)". A remixed version of Sugar Ray's "Abracadabra" cover appeared in the 2002 film Clockstoppers, in addition to being included on that film's soundtrack album. The song "Glory" was used in the 1999 film American Pie, and featured on the soundtrack album. It was later featured in the 2001 film Max Keeble's Big Move. In 1999, "Falls Apart" was featured in the WB series Charmed, while "Someday" appeared in the WB series Roswell that same year. "Someday" was also used in the CBS series Cold Case in 2008. and in later years went on to appear in the television shows Cruel Summer, Family Guy, Fresh Off the Boat and Las Vegas, in addition to appearing in the 2007 German television movie 29... and still a Virgin.
Reception
The album was generally well received by critics. Paul Pearson of AllMusic wrote, "Their third album showed an alarming overhaul in their approach...from their metal shellac toward a calmer, melodious pastiche of songs. and concluded that 14:59 has such catchiness and charm that it's a guilty pleasure of high order, and a bigger step than one might have expected from Sugar Ray."
David Browne of Entertainment Weekly was less positive and stated: "It's genuinely hard to hate Sugar Ray; [...] Still, listening to '14:59' is a somewhat sad, depressing experience. [...] The album is the sound of a band resigned to the possibility that they may be one-hit wunderkinds and that the 2 million fans who bought their last album may have moved on to Barenaked Ladies." not found on the retail version. These tracks are:
- The hit "Fly" from their previous Floored album
- The original demo recording of "Aim for Me"
- A live acoustic version of "Every Morning"
- The radio edit of "Falls Apart"
- "Rivers", a song written in the style of and in tribute to Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo
Personnel
Sugar Ray
- Mark McGrath – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
- Rodney Sheppard – lead guitar, backing vocals
- Murphy Karges – bass, guitar, backing vocals
- Stan Frazier – drums, percussion, guitar, programming, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on "Someday"
- Craig "DJ Homicide" Bullock – turntables, samples, programming, keyboards, backing vocals
Technical personnel
- David Kahne – producer , programming, mixing, engineer, mastering
- Ralph Sall – producer
- John Travis – mixing, engineer
- Steve Gallagher – engineer
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
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! scope="col"| Chart (1999–2000)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
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! scope="row"| Singaporean Albums (SPVA)
| 1
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Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
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! scope="col"| Chart (1999)
! scope="col"| Position
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! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 37
|}