Sponge, the band

I bought their two most recent CD's last week, "For All the Drugs in the World" and "The Man," and just recently made a CD with 19 of my favorite Sponge songs from their five CD's. Next to the likes of Def Leppard and Marilyn Manson, Sponge, along with Bush and Cold, has to be one of my favorite bands, in my top five at least. I just can't understand why they aren't more popular than they are. Have they just run into bad luck? Does their marketer shoot up too much to get anything done? Why doesn't the radio play them more often than they do?

Unlike some bands, such as Nickelback, Wallflowers, and some others, all of Sponge's CD's sound different. All of their songs sound unique. They went from Rotting Pinata, with the likes of "Plowed," "Molly," "Giants," "Neenah Menasha," and the title track to Wax Ecstatic, which had a harder, rawer edge to it, with tracks like "My Purity," "Got to be a Bore," "I Am Anastasia," and the title track. They went from dark and heavy on Wax Ecstatic to a bit more up-beat and pop-sounding with New Pop Sunday. Even though it was not similar in the least bit with their first two albums, it was still solid, with some great songs, such as "My Lackluster Love," "Radio Prayer Line," and "Disconnected." They went from that to "For All the Drugs in the World," which sounded like a hybrid of their first two albums. Finally, "The Man" was their fifth album and the heaviest yet.

Vinnie Dombroski has a unique and powerful voice and an in-your-face writing style that is rare anymore. The drums, guitar, and bass are all solid. They go everywhere with what they play. There are rock songs that sound more '70s and '80s, with some guitar solos attached to them. There are some that sound more '80s-'90s, and then on "The Man," it sounds very contemporary. They've gone raw and hard, raw and soft, up-beat and poppy, contemporary and heavy, have mixed in other instruments, such as the piano and saxophone.

Sponge rocks, it's as simple as that. The sad part about it is the fact that not many people have had the opportunity to judge for themselves whether or not this is the case. They rock out with a very diverse array of songs from a diverse set of albums, and I hope that luck will be on their side in years to come, so that more people can enjoy their music and they can find better success for what they should've had a while back.