Not the Sponge of yesteryear...
Brad Moore | Mazzola, TheMan | 10/11/2005
(2 out of 5 stars)
"This is NOT the sponge of yesteryear! That being said, taking away all original members except Vin this could have been worse I suppose. It's always refreshing to hear Vin's voice rather than all this other garbage on radios etc.
I will say the new band members are horrible. The only compliments I can make on this cd are about Vins voice, and Billy's drumming in spots. For those who don't know, Vin wrote the whole song "for all the drugs..." so that explains why it is so good.
This is a much heavier sounding sponge reminding me at times of Alice in Chains. They also are trying to fit into the new modern genre of nickelback and creed on a few songs, which I don't really care for.
The opening song takes a few listens but it okay...I really dig the song "Glue" as well. There is a particular song on here (back against the wall) that sounds like they didn't even try to make a song. It's awful. It sounds kind of liek they recorded a band practice of them just jamming along, and decided to keep it as a record track. It's not even b-side material, because Sponge's old b side stuff is amazing. I blame most of this on the fact that non-oringinal members are blocking old sounds. I so badly miss Mike and Joey playing their signature guitar sounds, over Tim's backing bassline and Jimmy/Charlies creative drumming. Joey Mazzola is much needed back for his writing process! He is a phenomenal guitarist.
Most Sponge fans are going to enjoy Vin's voice as I stated earlier, but don't expect to love this cd. If someone actually loves this cd, I would expect that they weren't born too many Sponges ago!"
It's alright
Bryce Hayworth | 11/16/2005
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Sponge's latest album The Man is just an average cd. I like the old Sponge lineup better. All I can really say is that overall The Man is better than their last album, For All The Drugs In The World."