While they were never the most original band on the block, post-grungers
Sponge did always manage to include plenty of hooks in their songs. And despite their albums no longer leaving as strong an impression on the charts as their best-selling debut did (1995's
Rotting Piñata), they can still come up with tunes that many mainstream rock fans would find appealing, as evidenced by 2007's
Galore Galore. More succinctly, the "they" in
Sponge is singer Vinnie Dombrowski, who is the only
Sponge member left from the
Rotting Piñata era. At times, the sound largely remains the same, especially such tracks as "Through the Hard Times (Before the End)" and "Skill of the Kill." But at other points, there are songs that could be mistaken for performances by an American Idol participant (the album-opening "I Wanna Lose"), an emo band ("No DOA on Sunday"), or frat boy rockers ("Party Till We Drop"). If you enjoyed
Sponge's derivative yet tuneful rock from their earlier albums, there's no reason why you shouldn't enjoy
Galore Galore. [
Galore Galore was also released in a clean edition with explicit content removed.] ~ Greg Prato