Come Clean

Puddle of Mudd's story is every struggling musician's dream come true: armed with a fake backstage pass, frontman Wes Scantlin snuck the band's demo to a Limp Bizkit security guy at a show in their native Kansas City, and less than one year later finds his group's debut album the first release on Fred Durst's new label. Thankfully, Come Clean sounds nothing like Limp Bizkit, but Puddle of Mudd's aggro-rock sound is indistinguishable from every other Alice in Chains- and Tool-influenced band to come along in the past few years. The opening, "Control," milks the loud/quiet formula that's been done to death since Nirvana's demise, but adds some interesting stop-time changes during the break, while the acoustic balladry of "Drift & Die" sounds so familiar, Layne Staley should get a portion of the songwriting royalties. In the end, this isn't a terrible debut album, but it doesn't really bring any original ideas to the nü-rock table. And frankly, in today's already glutted metal market, that's simply not good enough.