Sublime – Robbin the Hood [CD]

Long Beach garage kings Sublime rode the cresting wave of late-’80s/early-’90s Cali punk to a well-received 1996 major-label debut whose success was overshadowed by tragedy: frontman Brad Nowell died of a heroin overdose just a month before its release. This 1994 album was their freshman indie outing and the record that largely secured their ticket to the majors. Instead of building on the energetic, if formulaic, punk-reggae fusion of their 1992 40 Oz. to Freedom (with its sometimes awkward, too-dumb-to-be-ironic lyrical bent), Robbin’ displays a Nowell whose slow evolution as a songwriter is more than compensated by an eager plundering of old-school rap influences and ska beats. It’s a record that moves the band beyond often-stultifying punk clichs to a true musical adventure whose buoyant sense of discovery is almost palpable, and one that proves that their ’96 big-label breakthrough was no accident.

Tracklist:

1. Waiting For Bud
2. Steady B Loop Dub
3. Raleigh Soliloquy Pt. I
4. Pool Shark – (original)
5. Steppin’ Razor
6. Greatest-Hits
7. Free Loop Dub / Q-Ball
8. Saw Red
9. Work That We Do
10. Lincoln Highway Dub
11. Pool Shark – (acoustic)
12. Cisco Kid
13. Raleigh Soliloquy Pt. II
14. STP
15. Boss D.J.
16. I Don’t Care Too Much For Reggae Dub
17. Falling Idols
18. All You Need
19. Freeway Time in la County Jail
20. Mary
21. Raleigh Soliloquy Pt. III
22. (Untitled) – (hidden track)
23. Don’t Push

UPC: 008811147525
Label: Mca
Release Date: 7.23.96
Format: CD