''Wax Ecstatic'' is the second studio album by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...

. It was released on July 2, 1996 through

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. The album features a more '70s

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

-influenced sound compared with the band's previous release. It is the band's first album with drummer Charlie Grover, and includes the hit singles "

Wax Ecstatic (To Sell Angelina) "Wax Ecstatic (To Sell Angelina)" is a song by American rock band Sponge, released in 1996 as the first single from their second album '' Wax Ecstatic''. Release and reception It is the band's third song to appear on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot ...

" and "

Have You Seen Mary "Have You Seen Mary" is a song by American Rock music, rock band Sponge (band), Sponge. The song was released in 1996 as the second single from the group's second studio album, ''Wax Ecstatic''. Release and reception "Have You Seen Mary" is the ...

Production

''Wax Ectastic'' was originally intended to be a

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

revolving around the death of a drag queen; instead, only two songs on the album address the subject. The band decided against the idea of making a concept album, and instead would incorporate new instrumentation along with a more '70s

-influenced sound compared to ''

Rotting Piñata ''Rotting Piñata'' is the debut studio album by American rock band Sponge, released on August 2, 1994 through Work Group. Hit singles from this album, such as " Plowed" and "Molly (16 Candles Down the Drain)", helped launch the band's career and ...

''.

Release

''Wax Ecstatic'' was released in July 1996 and peaked at number 60 on the ''Billboard'' 200. "

" and "

" were released as the first and second singles from the album, and both received significant airplay on radio and

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

. The songs "I Am Anastasia" and "Silence Is Their Drug" also received radio airplay, but were not officially released as singles.

Critical reception

''Wax Ecstatic'' received mostly positive reviews.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

staff writer

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

said "In order to grow, the group went back to their beginnings, touching on glam rock, arena rock,

blues rock Blues rock is a fusion music genre that combines elements of blues and rock music. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electric blues and rock (electric guitar, electric bass guitar, and drums, sometimes w ...

, and jangle pop. Although it reveals ''

'' to be somewhat calculating in its approach, ''Wax Ecstatic'', ironically, is a far superior album." ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...

'' wrote that the album "is markedly stripped down from the dense fury of ''Rotting Piñata'', incorporating new instrumentation (piano, saxophone, cello) and working its way through such rootsy numbers as 'The Drag Queens of Memphis' and the album-closing 'Velveteen'."

Track listing

All songs produced by Tim Patalan and

. * European Version contains "Slower Suicide"

Samplers and promos

All songs produced Tim Patalan and

. All songs produced by Tim Patalan and Sponge except where noted.

Personnel

Vinnie Dombroski Mark "Vinnie" Dombroski (born December 4, 1962) is an American musician, best known as the lead vocalist and main songwriter for the American rock band Sponge. He also fronted the short-lived supergroup Spys4Darwin, and has been a member of se ...

– vocals, drums, guitar * Mike Cross – guitar, bass * Tim Cross – bass *

Joey Mazzola Joe "Joey" Mazzola (born April 13, 1961) is a guitarist, songwriter, music educator and visual artist and is probably best known as a founding member of the American rock band, Sponge. Joe was the original Sponge guitarist and played with the ...

– guitar, backing vocals * Charlie Grover – drums

Additional personnel

* Tim Patalan – recording *

Andy Patalan Andrew Patalan (born March 14, 1970) is an American musician best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist for the alternative rock band Sponge. He also is a founding member of Solid Frog and Throttlebody. He was also the guitarist for Bro ...

& Matt Hanson – recording assistants *

Tim Palmer Timothy J. Palmer (born 4 October 1962, in North Shields) is an English record producer, audio engineer, guitarist and songwriter of rock music, rock and alternative rock, alternative music. He Audio mixing (recorded music), mixed Pearl Jam's d ...

– mixing, additional production on "Silence Is Their Drug" * Mark O'Donoughue – mix engineer * Jamie Seyberth – additional engineering * Lamont Hyde – engineering assistant * Steve King – engineer * Mike Corbett – post production edit * Howie Weinberg – mastering * Pablo Mathiason – A&R *

Susan Silver Susan Jean Silver (born July 17, 1958) is an American music manager, best known for managing Seattle rock bands such as Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Screaming Trees. Silver also owns the company Susan Silver Management, and co-owns the club T ...

– management * Stacy Fass – legal * Gudvi, Chapnick & Oppenheim – business management * John Jackson – international booking * Mary Maurer – art direction * SITE – design * Melanie Nissen – photography

Additional musicians

* Richard Butler – additional vocals on "I Am Anastasia" * Johnny Evans –

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: ''altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In 4-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruses by ...

and

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

sax * Chris Codish – acoustic piano * Mando Dorame – sax solo on "My Baby Said" * Steve Baxter – trombone on "My Baby Said" * Donald Hayes – saxophone on "My Baby Said" * Anne King – trumpet on "My Baby Said" * Tim Patalan – cello

Equipment

* Fender guitars and strings * Naylor amps *

GHS GHS may refer to: Education * Gaithersburg High School, Gaithersburg, Maryland, US * Glendora High School, a school in Glendora, Los Angeles, US * Glenunga International High School, formerly Glenunga High School, a school in Adelaide, South Aus ...

strings *

Sabian Sabian may refer to: *Sabians, name of a religious group mentioned in the Quran, historically adopted by: **Mandaeans, Gnostic sect from the marshlands of southern Iraq claiming John the Baptist as their most important prophet **Sabians of Harran, ...

cymbals *

Pearl drums , simply known as Pearl, is a multinational corporation based in Japan with a wide range of products, predominantly percussion instruments. History Pearl was founded by Katsumi Yanagisawa -who began manufacturing music stands in Sumida, Tokyo- o ...

Production

Release

Critical reception

Track listing

Samplers and promos

Personnel

Additional personnel

Additional musicians

Equipment

Charts

Album

Singles

References