Artist:     Sponge

Album:     Demoed in Detroit 1997-98

Label:     Cleopatra Records

Release Date:     3.15.19

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Akin to walking blindly into a blazing inferno, a first encounter with Demoed in Detroit 1997-98 is likely to induce shock and awe. Mothballed for years, these explosive recordings burst out of intense sessions that threatened to blow the doors off a small Detroit studio where gritty ’90s alternative-rock phenomenon Sponge was plotting the follow-up to 1996’s Wax Ecstatic. In their element, in their hometown, a place with a long rap sheet of violent, gritty proto-punk savagery, Sponge was out for blood.

Unprepared for what he was about to hear, despite having worked with Aerosmith, Foreigner and the Black Crowes, A&R veteran John Kalodner stopped in to catch up with Sponge back then and left in a big hurry, knocked back by a backdraft of all-consuming sonic fury. That makes for a good story, the kind of legend that helps build mythologies and intrigue around lost albums like Demoed in Detroit 1997-98. What’s baffling is why this combustible material was scrapped altogether. None of it appeared on 1999’s relatively tame, but perhaps more accessible and colorful, New Pop Sunday, and it sat undisturbed, wasting away for years.

Salvaged from complete obscurity, although probably not in time to fulfill the promise of Sponge’s 1994 grungy debut smash Rotting Piñata, the Detroit band’s commercial high-water mark, the 13 previously unreleased originals here mix melodic and stylish hard-rock drama with dark, full-throttle punk energy. Whipping by, like a drag race of overdriven guitars, the ferocious opener “How Much Do You Think of Love” is sleek and fast, with tight hooks that grab on for dear life. Just as urgent and gripping, “Once in a Blue Moon,” “Walk in My Shoes” and “Love’s a Killer” are driving tracks powered by the same surging riffs. The thick, grinding “Fell in Deep,” a roiling vortex of meat and muscle, sounds more metallic and gnarly, while the infectious “Get Down and Assume the Position” succeeds with theatrical bombast.

Demoed in Detroit 1997-98 has more going for it than raw horsepower. The meditative “What Are Good Friends For” combines classy sweeps of piano and acoustic guitar with a touch of horns, which feature more prominently and expressively in an elegant, Spanish flavored “Song for the End of the World.” A version of The Doors’ “Break on Through” is included among the extras, awash in gothic overtones and swarming with guitars. With it comes a slithering, brawny reimagining of “Born to be Wild” that gets down and dirty, making these the best of three covers packaged in this archival release. More ivory tinkling and delicate acoustic guitar maneuvers bring out the stunning beauty of previous hits “Plowed” and “Molly (16 Candles Down the Drain),” both from Rotting Piñata, in exclusive versions recorded just for this moment. In these quieter stretches, the gravelly rasp of singer Vinnie Dombroski adds angst and emotional resonance to songs of betrayal, love and existential ennui, with ballads like “Great Big Flop” going for a big finish. Is it time to reassess Sponge yet?

—Peter Lindblad