A perfect piece of lollapalooza bubblegum, Sponge's debut album, Rotting Piñata, went gold by tapping into the pop-punk Zeitgeist. On Wax Ecstatic, Sponge (rhymes with "grunge") try to avoid the sophomore slump by making a stab for ye olde artistic credibility, adding horns, strings and an ill-advised soul influence. Yet Sponge bring some unexpected elements to the mix, exchanging Hüsker Dü hommages for the goth-glam atmospherics of Bauhaus and the Psychedelic Furs (whose vocalist, Richard Butler, contributes his signature rasp to "Anastasia").

Indeed, Wax Ecstatic contains a few guilty pleasures, including not one but four songs about drag queens. The title track works a driving Sisters of Mercystyle doom groove, anchored by a great nails-on-chalkboard guitar line. "Got to Be a Bore" savagely lampoons Nine Inch Nails' overwrought angst, with vocalist Vinnie Dombroski outdoing "Weird Al" Yankovic's Trent Reznor imitation. Moaning lines like "All I ever wanted was to be well-adjusted," Dombroski proves that if you're going to be derivative, you'd better be funny, too. (RS 738/739)

MATT DIEHL