In the Pursuit of Leisure

In the Pursuit of Leisure is the fifth studio album by American rock band Sugar Ray, released in 2003. Singer-songwriter Esthero and reggae singer Shaggy both make guest appearances.

It features the single "Mr. Bartender (It's So Easy)", a song which includes samples from both Sweet's hit "Love Is Like Oxygen" and Midnight Star's hit "No Parking (On the Dance Floor)." That track was a success and reached the #20 spot on Billboard's Adult Top 40. A cover of Joe Jackson's new wave song "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" was released as the second single. It had similar success and reached the #29 spot on Billboard's Adult Top 40.

Commercial response
The album sold 135,000 copies, far less than the band's prior self-titled release, which had gone platinum. The album's commercial failure led to a six-year gap in releasing their next album.

Reception
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called it "another winning record by a band who has proven to be far more resilient than anybody could have guessed when 'Fly' flew to the top of the charts in 1997." Entertainment Weekly gave it a B− rating, saying that "nothing on this album is good for you, but you may find its saccharine charms difficult to resist."

Rolling Stone's Pat Blashill had a more negative review, saying that "Sugar Ray are a synthesis of everything that's dumb about pop music; like Prell shampoo, they make you feel bouncy, resilient and full of pep." Blashill also labelled the single "Mr. Bartender (It's So Easy)" as "a metal-pop song with a gratuitously silly rap chorus." Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine also had a negative review in 2003, saying that "Sugar Ray’s 1999 album 14:59 was such a blatant, no-apologies capitalist cash-in it was difficult not to admire it. But after their carbon copy self-titled follow-up, and now In the Pursuit of Leisure, their fifth album, Sugar Ray just seem downright lazy." He added that, "Sugar Ray has built an entire career out of creating summer anthems and now it seems they’re just treading pool water. The album, perhaps more appropriately titled In the Pursuit of Absolutely Nothing, is breezy and inviting but utterly unchallenging—for both the band and its audience."

Sugar Ray

 * Sugar Ray ― songwriting (1, & 3-11)
 * Mark McGrath – lead vocals
 * Rodney Sheppard – guitar, backing vocals
 * Murphy Karges – bass, backing vocals
 * DJ Homicide – turntables, samples, programming; keyboards, backing vocals
 * Stan Frazier – drums, percussion, backing vocals

Songwriting on "Is She Really Going Out with Him?"

 * Joe Jackson

Guest vocalists

 * Esthero – on "Heaven"
 * ProHoeZak (Simon McKinley) – on "Mr. Bartender (It's So Easy)"
 * Shaggy – on "56 Hope Road"