1. My Lackluster Love
2. Polyanna
3. Live Here Without You
4. 1000 Times
5. All American World
6. Radio Prayer Line
7. New Pop Sunday
8. Planet Girls
9. When You're On Fire Baby, Roll
10. Disconnected
11. Lucky
NOTES
Date: April 13, 1999
Label: BMG/BEYOND
Genre: ROCK
Category: Rock/Pop
CREDITS Production Credits
Sponge : Main Performer
REVIEWS CDNOW
Sponge
New Pop Sunday
(Beyond/BMG)
The big pop challenge isn't writing hits but writing enough hits to build a career.
Sponge apparently blew its wad with Rotting Pinata, its 1995 debut, but the
plucky Detroit quintet just keeps plugging away.
In fact, the biggest problem with the band's third album is that the musicians seem
to be working mighty hard to accomplish so little. Frontman Vinnie Dombroski has
adopted a contrived mush-mouthed delivery that makes him sound like a cut-rate Mick
Jagger impersonator, and as crisp and feisty as the band's attack is, there just
aren't enough hooks to make these songs stick.
The album scrapes bottom during the power ballads, where the music is too relaxed
to camouflage Dombroski's dubious lyrics. The group fares much better on rockier
numbers like "When You're on Fire Baby, Roll" and "Disconnect,"
in which the playing alone carries the tunes. On the whole, though, this is a pretty
soggy affair.
