Music for Cougars
| Music for Cougars | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | July 21, 2009 | |||
| Recorded | September 2008–March 2009 | |||
| Studio | Pulse Recording Studios (Silver Lake, California) | |||
| Genre | Pop rock[1][2] | |||
| Length | 42:04 | |||
| Label | Pulse Recordings | |||
| Producer | Josh Abraham, Steve Fox, Stan Frazier, Tim Pagnotta, S*A*M and Sluggo, Luke Walker | |||
| Sugar Ray chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | (54/100)[3] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [1] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B[4] |
| L.A. Times | [5] |
| Rolling Stone | [2] |
| The Tune | (C+)[6] |
Music for Cougars is Sugar Ray's sixth studio album, released in 2009. This was the last album to feature turntablist Craig "DJ Homicide" Bullock, bassist Murphy Karges and drummer Stan Frazier before their departures in August 2010 and early 2012, respectively.
Title
[edit]Singer Mark McGrath told Rolling Stone in 2009 that the title was a reference to the band's predominantly female fanbase, and that he became inspired to use it after a friend of his brought it up. He said, "we were playing at the Grove [mall] here in Hollywood, a funny gig on a Sunday, people walking by with strollers. And a friend of ours goes, 'All your fans are cougars'. That’s fucking brilliant." McGrath added that, "to me 'cougars' is an empowering word. It’s like role reversal. Cougars are proud, they take care of themselves and they know what they want."[7]
Commercial performance
[edit]The album was not as successful commercially as previous Sugar Ray albums. It reached number eighty on the Billboard 200 chart, with none of the album's three singles charting. Shortly before the album's release, McGrath told the New York Post that "there are no commercial concerns for Sugar Ray now. Sure we'd love to sell a million records, who wouldn't? But look, when a U2 record and a Guns N' Roses record both [recently] fail commercially, it’s far from us to think we can sell millions."[8]
Reception
[edit]Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the album three-and-half out of five stars. He noted its heavy usage of autotune, and wrote "they make no bones about making Music for Cougars, those cougars being the very girls that shook their hips to 'Fly' back in 1997 and are looking for a little bit of the same breezy vibe 12 years later, a little bit of sexy nostalgia to get them through their summer, a soundtrack to a few girls' nights out."[1] Billboard claimed in 2009 that it "marks a return to the tried-and-true formula that made 1997's 'Fly' a radio staple."[9]
Track listing
[edit]- "Girls Were Made to Love" (featuring Collie Buddz) (includes a sample from Eddie Hodges' "(Girls, Girls, Girls) Made to Love", 1962) – 3:38
- "Boardwalk" – 3:26
- "She's Got the (Woo-Hoo)" – 3:35
- "Love Is the Answer" (cover of a previously unreleased Weezer track, written by and featuring Rivers Cuomo; later reworked and re-recorded for Weezer's Raditude)[10] – 3:57
- "Rainbow" – 3:17
- "Closer" – 3:33
- "When We Were Young" – 3:21
- "Going Nowhere" – 2:49
- "Love 101" – 3:17
- "Last Days" – 3:33
- "Morning Sun" – 3:44
- "Dance Like No One's Watchin'" (featuring Donavon Frankenreiter) – 3:53[11]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Allmusic review
- ^ a b Hoard, Christian (August 18, 2009). "Rolling Stone: Review". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on March 27, 2010. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
- ^ Metacritic score
- ^ "Music for Cougars". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022.
- ^ L.A. Times review
- ^ "The Tune review". Archived from the original on October 24, 2009. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "Mark McGrath on the Ugly Truth About Sugar Ray (And Why Their New Album Still Rocks)". Rolling Stone. July 21, 2009.
- ^ "Sugar Ray Lets 'Fly' Again". August 6, 2009.
- ^ "Rock band Sugar Ray back in the ring as indie act". Reuters. June 8, 2009.
- ^ "Sugar Ray: Songs, Albums, Pictures, Bios". Amazon.com. January 1, 1970. Retrieved March 2, 2012.
- ^ "Music for Cougars by Pulse Recording, Sugar Ray | Barnes & Noble". Music.barnesandnoble.com. June 24, 2013. Archived from the original on March 8, 2012. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
