Sublime Album Review

In the summer of 1992, Sublime released their debut album 40 Oz. to Freedom. This album was revolutionary for many ska punk, and reggae listeners. This album was solely recorded in Long Beach California. In total, the album is 74 minutes long featuring former lead singer Brad Nowell. Nowell passed away years later from an accidental heroin overdose, which ultimately made the album more impactful.

            Mixing themes of bad decision making, accidental love, and bad situations of the band’s lives creates sympathy for the band. The audience compares their lives to the life of Brad Nowell, for instance, and notices the overall trend in each song. He sings about indulging in poor decisions relating to drug consumption, and alcohol abuse. This shows the audience how tough his life was, and how the misfortunes he experienced made songs like “Badfish” to have a central meaning. Blending Jamaican sounds like those of Bob Marley, and meaningful lyrics, created a reggae feel in each song.

            Many songs were upbeat and showed Bradley’s drug problem on a large scale. The song that best describes this is “Badfish”. The song specifically relates to his consumption of alcohol and how he has nowhere else to turn, other than drugs. Lyrics that show this effectively include; “Two pints of booze tell me are you a badfish too? Are you a badfish too? Ain't got no money to spend, I know the night will never end. Lord knows I'm weak, won't somebody get me off of this reef.” Brad sings about how bad of a person he is, and how he has no more money. All of his financial efforts went towards booze and drugs. He then goes on to say how he is weak, and he needs someone to get him off of the “reef”. Analyzing this lyric, I noticed the reef was a metaphor for the messed up world he lived in. This was a good literary device that makes the audience think.

Another lyric of “Badfish” includes; “I swim but wish I never learned, the water's too polluted with germs.” His ability to “swim” showed his experimental behavior with drugs. He uses another effective metaphor in saying he wish he never learned, and the water is too polluted with germs. He alludes to how the world is polluted with drug users, and he has put himself in that position. I believe these lyrics would be relatable to both lower income people, and drug users worldwide. This is a taste of how meaningful his music was, and a good reason why the album was unanimously popular.

The album cover shows a lot of intricate colors and shapes. It portrays a sun showing many colors, and mushrooms. The sun also contains eyes, which are squinted. This shows the overall drug use of the band. It shows their love of bright colors, in a way, and shows how optimistic they are towards life. Sublime was just a band that wanted everyone to feel good about their life, and that if they for any reason gave in to temptation, it was justified in one way or another.

I would recommend this album to many listeners. Although, this album would not be beneficial to younger listeners, that are younger than 15. It would be inappropriate in a some ways, considering the harmful, explicit lyrics. Listening to the album, I felt pretty good about myself. I am not a drug user, and I’m glad to have a life without drugs. I would rate this album a 3.7/5 because of the quality of the music itself, the story behind each song, and the emotions I felt listening to it. It was a great recipe for one of the best albums of all time.