Sugar Ray are only halfway through recording their fifth album, but singer Mark McGrath already has a title: Our Best Years are Behind Us.

"It's a working title," he says of the record, which is expected out next spring. "It was a joke at first, but everybody seems to like it a lot. I don't know if they're serious or they think it's funny. I always say we're the first to make fun of ourselves so we can beat everyone to the punch."

Teaming once more with producer David Kahne -- who was behind the boards for Sugar Ray's other shot at themselves, 1999's 14:59, and the record that put them on the map, 1997's Floored, McGrath predicts a return to light and breezy form after taking a slightly darker detour on 2001's self-titled LP.

"It's one of my favorite records," McGrath says of Sugar Ray, "the songwriting really evolved, but it's a little heavy. We missed a lot of the old things and a lot of the humor that defines Sugar Ray. So this time we're throwing in some humor for better or worse. It's got a lighter bounce to it and I think it will complement the summer nicely, which has kind of been the forte of the band anyway."

Fellow SoCal rockers No Doubt provided the inspiration for the album. "A bar that was set real high for us was seeing No Doubt come back with Rock Steady," says McGrath. "It was a light, fun record, really well written. We were really inspired by that record."

Sugar Ray called in the ubiquitous Neptunes, who applied their chart-topping touch to the track, "Here She Comes," but McGrath's got an early bet on the song "Heaven" to be Sugar Ray's best shot at another hit. "It's boy alone," says McGrath. "Boy meets girl. Girl meets boy. Boy goes to heaven. Girl goes to heaven with boy. Did I just say that? The verses are dark and lonely and then there's this big huge chorus that opens up into a heavenly place, if you will, no pun intended."

Also among the collection of thirty rough song sketches being considered for the album is a fully realized cover of Joe Jackson's "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" "There's orchestration on it," says McGrath. "There are otherworldly sounds on this that make it sound great but still keep the bass line. But when you hear the top you're not going to recognize it, which is always good. Why do a cover if you're not going to fuck with it a little bit? Joe Jackson's already done it perfectly, we're just going to try to do it imperfectly."

During the recording sessions, bassist Murphy Karges and guitarist Rodney Sheppard both became fathers, leaving McGrath as the group's lone irresponsible holdout. "It's unreal man," he says, "backstage used to be naked chicks and beer and booze and now it's babies and formula. The rock & roll bubble I've been living in has been punctured by all these real life experiences. It's a trip to see these guys become fathers while we're trying to write a record. I'm that crazy ass drunk uncle that nobody wants to invite to the holidays and the birthdays but you have to invite because he's part of the family."

COLIN DEVENISH
(December 31, 2002)