Product Description

Sugar High's long-awaited second album Let The Sunshine Out is the glistening, hook-driven followup to 2001's Saccharin & Trust. Created with guitars, violins, and Casio keyboards, the angles vary from moody acoustic tracks to jarring rockers and soaring power pop, all delivered with new-found depth and urgency. Recorded over the course of two years in a vintage, analog studio by whiz producer Bob Hoag -- it was worth the wait.

Sugar High entered the pop culture grid in the 20th Century Fox film Drive Me Crazy, and their songs have featured in several other movies, including Green, Scarecrow Slayer, The Third Wish, and Killer Bud.

Discography highlights: Ice Cream Anti-Social EP (2000), Saccharin & Trust (2001), Carbon 14 Magazine compilation Encyclopedia Arizonica (2006).

"One of the best power-pop bands to spring from the Valley" -- Get Out Magazine

"Exuberance, heart and great songs" -- Phoenix New Times

Track Listing

1. Scatter
2. Going/Again
3. Tainted
4. My Star
5. Automatic
6. It's All Right The Way That You Live
7. Do Yourself That Favor
8. Swallowed Bombs
9. The King
10. Everyone Has To Go
11. Oh, Candy
12. Around You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #784967 in Music
• Released on: 2008-07-01
• Number of discs: 1

Review
Sugar High is without doubt one of the best pop/rock bands to come out of Arizona ever. Singer Adrian Evans has a very pleasant voice and perhaps more importantly he's a fine songwriter. It's pretty obvious that Evans has a deep respect for fellow Tempe jangle-rockers the Gin Blossoms; opening cuts "Scatter" and "Going/Again" are especially Blossom-like while "Tainted" sounds like something master-of-pop Matthew Sweet might do. Fans of this type of music will instantly have a taste for Sugar High and they'll also be treated to a super-jangly cover of Cheap Trick's "Oh Candy." --antimusic.com

Review
Question: How often is power pop so transmittable that you're left understanding exactly why Staind is huge and George Bush leads the free world? Answer: When it's a record crammed of sparkle and wonder, harmonies and longing, big riffs and sensitivity that's obviously too good, too smart and too sweet to nail any sort of mass acceptance.

But it takes real men (boys?) like those in Arizona's Sugar High to reveal the compassion and acceptance in chords and song, particularly ones sprinkled with bells, mellotrone, tambourine, hand claps, a sitar thingy, strings, harmonica and guitar tones that sound all vintage. Let the Sunshine Out presents bubblegum nihilism, straight-between-the-eyes pop and song-driven rock 'n' roll with gentle restraint juxtaposed against literate lines of alcohol-based losses, revelations and, of course, sprightly turns involving The Girl themes that actually become redemptive, as reflected in the album's title.

Singer Adrian Evans is blessed with a breathy midrange that'd put goosebumps on dudes comfortable with their sexuality as much as it'd put twinkles inside chicks' miniskirts. His lyrics show healthy library card usage and we feel the hard "cold floor" at his "cheek" as much as the "suicide postcards of Rothko and Van Gogh" from his love whose red flags finally flew.

Reference points bloom: The Kinks-ish "The King" and The Gin Blossom-y "Everyone Has to Go" and the baroque-ish bridge in "Around You" finger-pistols late-period Zombies. Other bursts of style and taste abound too, namely Cheap Trick because there's a cover of their brilliant "Oh, Candy" (about a trannie's suicide) included. Tackling that song could easily be a huge misstep; the deceptively tricky Rick Nielson song structure and harmonies are as difficult to grasp as Robin Zander's dynamic vocal range. Shit, it'd be like covering, oh, say, "Magical Mystery Tour." But SH does CT proud.

Gently picked guitar motifs and instrumental swoons finish and start songs throughout and the tempo change in "Do Yourself a Favor" is a quiet surprise, tender as a spring sunrise. And there are indisputable perfect-world smashes including "My Star," "Scatter" and "Tainted." Out looking for Dwight Twilley poltergeists or the record Super Deluxe should've made to become super huge? Here 'tis, kids, and then some. What's more, this clever, 12-song pop tart was produced and mixed in pure analog joy by the unheralded Bob Hoag; so it's a sonic marvel, natural and engaging. --(Detroit) Metro Times

Review
When you look up "power pop" in the dictionary, don't be surprised to see a picture of Sugar High. The Arizona band has regrouped to release the long-awaited followup to 2001's Saccharin & Trust, and they draw from Cheap Trick (there's a cover of "Oh Candy" here), The Shazam, and other power pop luminaries who emphasize loud guitars and uptempo tunes.

"Scatter" gets this point across immediately, all crunchy riffs and hooky melodies, reminiscent of Ike. "Going/Again" adds some jangle, making the track sound like a more rocking version of the Gin Blossoms. Elsewhere, they follow the formula with various interesting touches: "Tainted" throws what sounds like a sitar into the background mix; "My Star", possibly my favorite on the disc, adds some piano; "It's All Right The Way You Live" incorporates acoustic guitars and chimes; and the wonderful closer "Around You" is heavy on the harmonica. If you want something that's classic power pop yet radio-ready and won't draw any snide looks from your non-powerpop-loving friends, this is the disc to get. --Absolute Powerpop blog