Customer Reviews

Rotting Pinata

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Sponge's debut album wowed me when it first came out. I had heard their single "Plowed" on the radio and decided to give it a shot. After nearly 6 years of owning this cd, it remains one of my all time favorites. Their ability to emotionally move you with their tunes is absolutely wonderful. Vinnie's voice is awesome, emotionally wailing out his lyrics which are (in most cases) very creative and fairly deep in meaning. His voice also remains one of my favorites, being able to rasp it out on some tracks and be extremely soothing on others. My favorite track on this album by far is "Drownin". The depressing lyrics on this track and the way he sings them can easily lead one to tears in my opinion. Other favorites of mine are "Giants", the hidden track, "Rotting Pinata", and "Rainin". If you're looking for an excellent heartfelt album with that early 90s rock/alternative sound, this will definitely be a cd you will enjoy, so add it to your collection.

Rotting Pinata, perhaps the best cd ever made. Song by song review here for this amazing band, that is even better live.
1. Pennywheels - Starts out soft w/ a gentle acousic strumming, then explodes into a song about abandonment, and turns into a heavy yet bitter song,love it. This is Sponge saying, welcome to the best albumn you will hear.
2. Rotting Pinata - This is a punk song, but not your everyday punk at all. Starts out w/ clean jangley guitar and then off into dark depressions of punk rock. Great guitar work by the tagteam talents of Mazzola and Cross here.
3. Giants - Soft alternative rocker about being cheated on. Not a sappy love story, the way Vin writes lyrics is SO refreshing and neat. This song ends very strong with a cresendo of guitar riffs and trade-off solos.
4. Neenah Menasha - Heaviest sponge song yet. Dropped guitar riffs, good hard rock song. They show their versatility on this song being able to go from ultra soft, to hard, and they show off their arena rock skills w/ walls of guitar and pumping bass lines.
5. Miles - Very strange guitar tones, interesting song. I think this one was wrote by the Cross brothers, whom were trained in classical guitar and bass lessons. It's like taking alternative rock and adding classical guitar parts in. The song has a very cold and dark feel to it as a whole.
6. Plowed - Awesome futuristic tune. Way before it's time, and i'm sure you heard this on the radio during Sponge's big days of radio. Great sing along song, big time hit.
7. Drownin' - Softest song on the cd, nice strummed acoustic, fantastic vocalsof depession. Shocked this was not a hit, but loved by all sponge fans around.
8. Molly - You've heard this one too "16 candles down the drain" such a good tune to crank up for road trips. This song just has it all the way around...vocal, drum, bass, guitar...everything just ROCKS it here.
9. Fields - "fields of fallin' angels" Sweet song that has powerful verse chorus stuf going on. Pretty clean guitars all over this song, and such a strong message.
10. Rainin' - My personal fav on this cd...this song builds and keeps on building. Definatly a missed hit, which just has all of the goods of this cd wrapped into one.
11 - (hidden song) Candy Corn - one listen to this, and you realize what a talented band Sponge is. This song is magical, and what i mean is, there is so much going on, it's just insane. It's beautifully a masterpiece. It stats out w/ pretty guitars and just goes ballistic with delayed vocals and dynamic instrument sections.

Last year, it was summer, and I was just laying around. I was flipping through channels and I came across the Music Choice channels, and I left it on the Rock channel. Well, it was on this channel that I had heard one of the most emotional and peacefully-powerful songs. It was Plowed by none other than Sponge. When I heard this song, I fell in love with it and waited for it to come on again. For some reason, though, I finally bought it in January.

This whole cd is an emotional headrush of love, sadness, and guilt. Every song pushes a completely different emotion into your mind. The cd starts with Pennywheels, which is a mellow and calm way to start the cd. Then it goes to the up-beat and exiting Rotting Pinata. Next it goes to Giants, a track that almost screams sadness and sorrow. Neena Menasha is another powerful, yet mellow song. Miles is sweet song that almost forces a guilty feeling upon you after listening to it. Then there's Plowed. Well, not much can be said about this song that hasn't been said. It is so emotional and gives you a sense of pride once it's over. Not many songs can do this. Drownin' is a song that truly is a sad song and is basically a way of saying this part of the cd is the sad part. Molly is my absolute favorite song of all time. This song is based on the movie Sixteen Candles with Molly Ringwald. This song actually made me go out and rent Sixteen Candles just so I could understand the song. Molly gives off a vibe of love and passion, and it is one that shall go down in my history books. Fields is the next song and is a great song with a great mood and lyrics. The somewhat final song is Rainin'. This song may very well be one of the saddest songs ever. The guitars are perfect with this song, they give off such a sad feeling. The actual last song is supposedly called Candy Corn. But, that doesn't matter because this song is the perfect ending to the cd. This song is peaceful and almost a way of coming to terms with all of the emotions you've felt along the way. The sound effects are very organic and add a sense of comfort.

If you are thinking of buying this cd, please do. This is possibly one of the coolest cds I have ever heard. It is so emotional that you may very well have to fight back tears when listing.

10 years later, this cd still rocks harder than a lot of forgettable mainstream stuff right now. These guys rocked when I saw them in the summer of 1995 with Letters to Cleo & Ned's Atomic Dustbin (Ned's, whom I had particularly taken a liking to at the time as well). I was a bit annoyed however when "Rotting Pinata" came on & guys started moshing... stepping on my toe hard, ow! It was really good nontheless, & I had worn this cd out by the end of the summer, I thought it was that good. Mmmmm, looking at some of these reviews, maybe other people expected every song to sound like "Plowed"...which is a good song, yes, but c'mon, NOT EVERY SONG HAS TO SOUND LIKE A HIT!! I guess some of these other songs sounded a bit moodier & darker, or maybe they are too diverse...or maybe the songs are too emotional, or maybe cuz they didn't immediately sound like another band, I dunno... there's nothing wrong any of those. End ranting, on with the songs.

1. Pennywheels - whatta GREAT opener... kinda slow at first, I always made the mistake of cranking up my stereo too loud to hear it & THEN the loud parts comes crashing in... very very good.
2. Rotting Pinata - catchy CATCHY guitar riff.. & don't ask me
what "Rotting Pinata" means, I didn't care, I just loved it.
3. Giants - nice slower track to keep things interesting...
& another catchy guitar riff
4. Neenah Menasha - this was my FAVORITE track by far... the spiraling bassline, the crunchy guitar riff, it just rocks. Whoever said there wasn't a song as good as "Plowed" on this album is WRONG!!!
5. Miles - another good mid-tempo track
6. Plowed - of course, the 1st alterna-radio "hit"
7. Drownin' - nice acoustic intro
8. Molly - if you couldn't remember who did "16 Candles down
the drain", look no longer (though I'm assuming most people who
come in here do)
9. Fields - coming after "Molly", one of the more 'happier'
sounding songs, but still with some dark undertones as he
repeats "Save me from myself". This could've been another
radio single, if you ask me.
10. Rainin' - with the memorable line "it's rainin' in my house", you can't help but notice that this whole album is a little more emotional than originally conceived
11. Unknown

Overall, a VERY good underrated band & album. The lyrics are worth checking out as well. I'll admit my teenage self listened to the 1st half a little more than the 2nd (mainly cuz I had usually listened to it while driving & had gotten somewhere by then), but don't ignore the 2nd half. I agree with another reviewer, the guitars are noticeably good here.. ranging from lyrical to heavy. Also recommended are Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Hum, & Failure... more underrated goodies *sigh*.

I have to admit that I had kind of forgotten about this band. A couple years ago a house fire destroyed alot of my CD's. Luckily I found this disc in a used CD store a week ago and instantly remembered what an amazing album this is, from a band that most people have never heard of. Its beyond me how these guys kind of slipped under the radar, but they did.

This album is solid, start to finish.. The sound (to me) is alot like STP... grungy guitars and voclas, but catchy melodies... an excellent effort start to finish.

This record embodies all that was once great about early 90's alternative! Yet, most of the sounds on this awesome disc are still relevent today..I don't think this record sounds dated."Plowed" will go down as one of the timeless 90's rock tracks, "Molly" is also great (keep your eye out for who the distributor is on the copy you may be thinking about buying ...they re-recorded the vocals for this song when WORK took over the distribution... the Molly vocals on the pressings distributed under CHAOS are much better. Keep your eyes peeled for the older CHAOS version!!) "Fields" is one of my all-time favorite songs and "Rainin" will inspire anyone. This record is a true gem, I hope more people will revisit this album and realize how great Sponge is!

This band is fantastic.

Truly a group with it's own sound,and you'll either love them or haven't heard them because they are so underrated.

My favourite song is Plowed, which incorporates some screaming guitar that'll make you remember what it is like to lose yourself in the moment, and some frighteningly apt lyrics.

This is a legendary bunch of guys,whose "like it or lump it" approach to their music is refreshing.They are not selling out but should nevertheless be cashing in.

Rainin' is another favourite of mine, which is extremely well put together.The fervour and passion that Dombroski sings with is able to transform a good song into a great song. Comparing him with Creed's Scott Stapp (not for similar sound, but for similar intensity) is one way to sum up his vocal capability.

A phenomenal band in A World Of Human Wreckage.

kadu81@hotmail.com

I wrote a review for this album already, but I forgot to mention that the hidden track, Candy Corn, is actually on it. You have to wait about a minute or so after Rainin' to hear it. Candy Corn and Rainin' are the two best songs on the album, but the entire album is great! Rush out and buy it today!

In 1994 Sponge released this amazing album, which they would then follow up with Wax Ecstatic, another great album, a few years later. The guitar playing on this album is phenomenanal and the way in which the guitar players: Mike Cross, and Joe Mazzola, is absolutely astounding, as their guitar work combined together makes the guitars have a watery type effect in several of the songs and the guitar solos, combined with Tim Cross' impresive use of the bass guitar completes this sublime album which is then rounded out by the impecable drumming skills of Jimmy Paluzzi (who also helps Vinnie with the vocals on a couple of songs). This is one of thos rare albums that slips underneath the commercial scene and got buried along with such great bands as Hum, and Failure; all these bands had a short lived lifespan, but were able to produce a couple amazing albums, that few others could come close to comparing their sound to. Though this album was born out of the grunge era, it is not really "grunge" per-say, as this album really stands on its own merits. Where as Hum and Failure had a very spacey feel to their albums, Sponge's first album Rotting Pinata has a feel as if you were being brought through the currents of the ocean as the whole album has a feel to it which must be heard to be believed. The songs that solidified this band for radio play, which you are probably familiar with are Plowed, and Molly, great songs in their own right, but these songs are easily overshadowed by the other songs that build the foundation of this album. From Neenah Menasha, to Giants, and Fields, there is not a weak track on this whole album, and even the secret song Candy Corn is absolutely flawless in closing off this impressive effort by sponge. They would release Wax Ecstatic a couple of years later once again slipping under many peoples radar, and not getting the commercial success that it rightly deserved. This however, is their epitome album and really shows Sponge in their prime, and is one album that has a way of sticking with you and not leaving your thoughts for a very long time. Impeccable work, and a true testament to another overlooked band of the 90's.

It's easy to rip on an album years later by calling it "dated," but everything sounds dated after a while. The true test of a great collection of songs is how appealing it remains over the years. I spent the better part of the '90s purchasing albums from the alternative/grunge genre, many of which I no longer listen to. But when looking for a few CDs to take to work or on a trip, I always seem to include Rotting Pinata, which surprises me given that I never used to think of Sponge as a great '90s band. Now I realize that Rotting Pinata captures what was great about grunge -- grinding, purposeful tempos, walls of noise, smart pop hooks. There isn't a bad song in this bunch, and the hidden track is a real treat. I personally don't care if Sponge or their first album isn't fashionable any more. I listen to Rotting Pinata all the time, and that makes it a classic in my book.