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49thparallelpop:

Sugar Jones- Days Like That [Sugar Jones] (2001) CAN #1

*Full disclosure policy in effect: I took a quick look at the Wikipedia page for Sugar Jones when I sat down to write this, and it informed me that this track is actually a cover, originally performed by a British R&B girl group called Fierce. I had no idea. But this version still hit #1 on the Canadian charts so I think it qualifies for this project.*

Sugar Jones was a female pop group formed on the first season of television competition show Popstars in 2001. Girl groups and boy bands were being produced by these kinds of shows at an alarming rate around this time, but the demand for them just kept growing. Before American Idol made singing competitions all about the individual, having a ridiculously powerful voice didn’t necessarily mean a guaranteed win. It was also important to be a team player, and particularly for a Canadian project, to help diversify the group. I would say the French-Canadian member is only there for that reason, but I happen to think she’s the most vocally talented of the bunch. Sugar Jones had considerable success with this song and the follow-up single ‘How Much Longer’, but only released the one self-titled album. Nevertheless, most people will remember them, because this song was everywhere.

The track is a letter of sorts to an ex-boyfriend who doesn’t seem to understand the idea of just being friends after a break-up. The ladies, however, are having none of it. While they sing about the good times mixed in with the bad, they confidently declare that “even though I’m still your friend, I don’t want to be with you.” This is an interesting variation on the better-off-without-you trope, but it’s still universal enough to have girls (and probably guys) singing along with a lot of feeling. It’s got a bit of that girl power thing going on, manifested in the video by the group huddle and sway towards the end where all five members meet in one room of their oddly space-age home, make a circle of righteous female anger and just let it all out. It’s pretty awesome.

Though the group didn’t last long, some of its members are still making music. I recently checked out Maiko Watson’s new material, and it’s pretty cool. She was always my favourite anyways, and was married to fellow Canadian singer Remy Shand for awhile. She even appears in the video for his biggest hit, ‘Take A Message’. There’s a good chance that song will be covered here in the future as well, because CanPop is like that.

ETA: This is the first (of hopefully more than one) guest post from my dear friend Lauren. Be nice to her!

So, 49th Parallel Pop has returned with a guest post from my friend Lauren, who is pretty awesome, and the biggest hit by Sugar Jones, who are the Canadian equivalent of Eden’s Crush or Girls Aloud or whatever.

Hopefully this will force me to get my ass in gear and write more.

Okay so in the summer of 2001, the summer after high school, I worked in a big chain movie theatre (for a company that no longer exists) that had, for the whole two months I was there, one ~45-minute playlist. This was one of the songs, so naturally by the end of the summer I hated it.

It holds up pretty well though?