The Man
The Man finds Sponge closer to the Stooges-MC5-Motor City garage rock on which it first built it's reputation. In fact, The Man is a little heavier, if that's possible, than anything Iggy and cohorts were ever up to. Considering that Sponge do hail from Detroit, it is perhaps no surprise that it has decided to stay faithful to it's roots and takes it's place in the upper echelons of the current garage rock scene. --Amplifier MagazineSponge had the privelidge of becoming a houshold name with their first 2 albums. With The Man these Detroit rockers stick to their tried and true formula, and do it well. Sponge proves they can still write relevant dark rock tracks, including "Glue", "Unlucky", "The Man", and "Higher (part 2)" which features a guitar contribution by Gilby Clarke (ex Guns & Roses). --Outburn MagazineBeing Sponge s fifth full-length release, The Man emotes a distinct air of progression into a darker, more severe realm where life is seen as a brittle, crumbling mountain on the verge of avalanching into a rubble heap of hard knocks, inner tumult, extreme bitterness, and futile desperation. Led by an incessant barrage of introspective and caustically biting lyrics, the overall musical content is heavier, meatier, and more corrosive than past Sponge offerings with several of these songs raucously straying into the angry, buzzing, Grunge side of Rock n Roll. But there is still an endearingly radiant abundance of the vibrantly stellar Glam/Alt-Rock melodies that have made Sponge a favorite mainstay on the national FM dial the past few years. The Man , Higher (Part 1), Feels Like Love , Higher (Part 2) (featuring Gilby Clarke of Guns & Roses), and Shittier Day Than Me (my personal fave) are especially sweet and flavorful, enthusiastically screaming out for public consumption on a mass scale. After an entire afternoon of The Man, I m left awestruck and wondering if there s any end to the sheer brilliance and undeniable talent behind the Sponge music-making machine. --Under The Volcano