Sugar

by Mathias SheaksOn their second album, Sugar, Tonic improve vastly on the palette of Lemon Parade by cutting away some of the fat and filler that threatened to submerge the bottom half of their debut. Though the frequent acoustic flourishes and mandolin work were interesting touches on Lemon Parade, they were often embedded in songs seeming to lack that special "something," and by doing away with most of this to focus their energies on a tighter, more direct (and in some dimensions, perhaps a little too narrow for the adventurously minded), rock-oriented approach, Emerson Hart and company have crafted a beautifully symmetrical and solid piece of modern rock. While the obvious bigger singles ("You Wanted More" from the American Pie soundtrack and "Knock Down Walls," which sports a great '80s power pop vibe) are present here, there are no bad songs to be found anywhere on the entire album, each one bearing its own redeeming qualities, whether a driving beat or a tenacious scrap of melody; from the evocative wistfulness of "Waiting for the Light to Change" to the carefree, summer romanticism of "Sugar," and from the opening stomp of "Sunflower" to the soft, crystalline splendor of "Love a Diamond," every track is its own entity, and yet the album still has a definite sense of flow in which no songs need to be skipped and subsequent listens prove continually more memorable and endearing to the ear. ... Read More...