Robbin' the Hood

by

Sublime

Edit

i must say, this album is by far the most hotly debated sublime album out of any of them, so i will say this before going on...if you are a fan of the sublime songs you hear on the radio, and think the rest of their music is a bit off the wall, then don't even bother looking into this album, you will be sorely disappointed by the lack of commercialism on this recording. even their debut album '40 oz. to freedom' sounds like a sellout disc when compared to this one. that being said, what you will find on this album is the most intensely personal recording that bradley and the boys put together. most of it was recorded in various living rooms around the long beach/south l.a. area, and you will notice a rather poor sound quality on many of the tracks, but after noticing this, and listening to them a few times, you realize how little the sound quality really matters. in fact, there are only a few songs that could be considered singles, such as 's.t.p.' (which stands for secret tweeker pad), 'greatest hits', where bradley pays homage to bert susanka and his punk outfit the ziggens, and 'saw red', a punk/ska track featuring gwen stefani from the band no doubt. a few of the songs are rough sketches of songs that would later be included on the self-titled album. 'lincoln highway dub' is a jazz inspired insturmental that was later completed and retitled 'santeria', and 'steady b loop dub' is another insturmental that was eventually reworked and went on to become 'garden grove'. (if you listen to the post-mortem album 'second hand smoke', you can hear a demo of what was to be the original 'garden grove' entitled 'garbage grove', but the boys wanted to wait for a chance to record it professionally, so it was stripped down to an insturmental for this release) the remainder of the disc is a collection extremely experimental fusion tracks, as well as several acoustic songs in which bradley lays down his heart and soul. 'pool shark', which has both an acoustic and fleshed out punk version, documents the conflict that bradley endured while fighting his losing battle with heroin addiction. most of the other songs are just fun to sing along with, like 'boss d.j.', 'mary', and the outstanding blues inspired track 'freeway time in l.a. county jail'. there are a few interludes which are provided by some weirdo named raliegh theodore sakers, and are extremely funny to hear, especially part 2, which is very obscene and has made me laugh out loud several times. everything being told, 'robbin the hood' is my favorite sublime disc, although it wasn't always my favorite one, it has certainly grown on me and i enjoy listening to it more and more every time i hear it. if you want to know the whole story of sublime, you can't miss this one. if you are looking for a much more reggae influenced sound, try '40 oz. to freedom', and if you want the somewhat homoginized, radio-friendly sound, go for the self-titled album instead.