Well here we go again. Four years after the crapfest that was Welcome to Galvania, here’s the newest one from Wes Scantlin and band. This album came out in the fall of 2023 and unlike previous records, didn’t spawn even one charting single and passed by on the Billboard charts without so much as a whimper. So why are we here? Why is there yet another Puddle record when everyone lost track of them after their horrendous “About A Girl” fiasco in January of 2020? Maybe we like to be tortured; maybe we don’t have anything else to do than listen to Puddle of Mudd in 2024 and write about it so that maybe others won’t have to? Whatever the case, here’s Ubiquitous.
Opening track “My Baby” sounds like post-grunge sludge from 1998 with absolutely no life, no soul. Hearing Scantlin strain to hit notes is just embarrassing and shouldn’t have been allowed to been put on tape. His weak-ass vocals are all over every track and all the multitracking and overdubbing can’t conceal how much he’s lost from all the alcohol, dope and whatever else he’s been doing for 20 years.
He gets downright repulsive on “Butterface,” which is a term for a cute girl with an ugly face. How someone in their early fifties would think this is a good idea for a song in the mid 2020s is just absurd. Don’t even listen past the first 45 seconds. And to find the song is co-written by Ty Connolly of post-grunge dinosaurs Theory Of A Deadman just belabors the point.
“Cash & Cobain,” which Scantlin has described as country-like is more hip-hop and is a dumpster fire of music. Referencing Nirvana, The Presidents of the United States of America and Sublime makes this feel like he was going for a good ol’ boy country song like Morgan Wallen and failing so miserably you cringe the whole song.
There’s some attempts at slower songs about the midway point, but they still suck and don’t make the album any better so skip those too. There’s more whining and bitching on “U Wrekd Me” and other forgotten songs I couldn’t be bothered to name. The closing track “Poke Out My Eyes” is credited to the early band members pre-Geffen record deal, that’s how far back Scantlin had to go to find material for this record. Just instantly forgettable trash.
