Tonic - Sugar

On 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. Read More