Clewis

Eh.

The soundtrack has a sort of cheesy 90s charm that I have a nostalgic soft spot for.

"You know you have to surviiiivee"

Some people out there just can't feel the sunshine.

Seriously, though, I believe lots of people dislike it because of the cheesy lyrics. Take those away, and it's every bit as good as any other Sonic soundtrack. That's why Richard Jacque's 3D Blast soundtrack doesn't get the same flak his R soundtrack does. It's all about the lyrics.

Those haters clearly haven't been blessed with the menu music

Personally one of my favorites. And I agree with the rest too. Cheesy lyrics aside, they still somehow made it work.

I find some songs are better with lyrics and some without.

But it is a very specific genre so I'm not surprised people hate it.  If you don't like that style of pop music you're just not gonna like it.  It's incomparable to his work on 3D Blast because that game's soundtrack was very "videogamey", a different genre for each environment.  Sonic R is all pop all the time.