MUSIC REVIEWS :: NEWS :: CRUD RADIO ::NEW RELEASES::PREVIEWS::HOME
 
SAVE DARFUR
 
 
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
MEDIA STREAM PREVIEW
play with Windows Media
Play Crud Radio - 1 hour of great music mixed exclusively for Crud
CRUD MUSIC MAG  ALERTS

MUSIC POLLS
Most Convincing Northerner
John Simm
Liam Gallagher
Peter Kay
Max Beesley
Vernon Kay

View Weekly Poll Results

   

Puddle Of Mudd - Come Clean
Label - Flawless/Geffen
Rating - **
Reviewer - James Berry

02/10/01

PUDDLE OF MUDD

What goes around inevitably comes around, is anyone that original anymore anyway? But what makes the latest wave of US grunge so frankly confounding is that 10 years almost exactly to the day since 'Nevermind' spat in the face of a complacent music industry and, for better or worse, changed American rock forever, paradoxically introducing the word angst into the wide alternative lexicon, we seem to have learnt absolutely nothing. Were Limp Bizkit, At The Drive In or Korn's subtle advances really completely lost on a public that prefers style and easy-access-emotion over substance and depth? Nothing learnt evidently, but if one thing's been perfected it's reference, recreation and efficiency - embodied up to the gills on this record.

'Control', first single and initial track on the album, is the only introduction you'll really need. It sounds a tiny bit like 'Serve The Servants', although not that much (be warned, this will become a recurrent feeling throughout - 'Bring Me Down' sounds a little like STP's 'Sex Type Thing', though only a bit, to name just another one). For a moment it sounds like it could be their own 'Killing In The Name' with its "I can't control you / You can't control me" mantra, but then they throw it all away with lines like "I love the way you look at me / I love the way you smack my ass / I love the dirty things you do / I have control of you". Make no mistake which level we're operating on here.

Much of the album is immediately agreeable in a Seattle breeze in your hair, grease on your skin, fuzz-pedal between your teeth, imagined weight of the world on your adolescent shoulders kinda way. Which is fine if you have no intention of getting under its skin and/or don't own much of the genres output circa '91. It has it's moments, the airy staccato verse of 'Blurry' (surely some mistake, it sounds like Stone Temple Pilots) for instance or 'She Fucking Hates Me' just because in a funny way it sounds a bit like Ugly Kid Joe. The main problem is he can't seem to decide whether he's trying to be Layne Staley or Kurt Cobain though compared to their brutish and shallow live show there is layering a plenty here. For the most part however it is all surface and no feeling.

Artist site - www.puddleofmudd.com

Review by James Berry for Crud Magazinel©

 
 
 
 

© CRUD MUSIC MAGAZINE/
2-4-7-MUSIC.COM 2006

STILL refusing to dumb it down.

CRUD MUSIC MAGAZINE HOME :: NEW RELEASES :: MUSIC REVIEWS :: MYCRUDSPACE :: MEDIA STREAMS :: MUSIC NEWS :: ADVERTISING :: POLLS :: CONTACT US ::
 
 
 
Crud Magazine is set up and maintained in accordance with permissions and conditions agreed by all parties.