Smash Mouth: Astro Lounge
Pat Blashill, Spin, July 1999
TWO YEARS AGO, when Smash Mouth snuck into the upper reaches of the Top 40 with a bit of '60s-damaged pop-rock called 'Walkin' on the Sun', they looked like the slightly lumpier cousins of No Doubt and Sugar Ray. But instead of miming punk realness, San Jose's Smash Mouth played with ska and hardcore like a toddler plays with Speak and Spell. On Astro Lounge, they fully emerge as a goofy but deeply schooled popcore band who sing about getting blunted and nodding off on the American Dream like a bunch of stoner Smurfs.
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