This album was played all over college radio during the heyday of the 90's third-wave ska trend, marking Goldfinger as an indie success. The upbeat, reggae-tinted "Here In Your Bedroom" was the single that made Goldfinger a household name, but "Mable" is the song that the vast majority of Goldfinger fans will name as their favourite, and I'm going to have to agree. But either way, you get both songs on this album. The main problem with this album that keeps it from being their best release is that while the good songs are really good, the mediocre songs really bring it down. Opening with "Mind's Eye?" C'mon! That song is horrible!
"King For a Day" and the Los Angeles bashing "The City With Two Faces," ("You're asking 'who's Keith Morris?' Yeah, you're punk rock!") are also great tracks. Just the difference in style between those two (ska-punk to heavier rock) shows the difference between new and old Goldfinger. Back in the day, they would cover a whole bunch of styles on one album, but nowadays, albums tend to have a theme. "Answers" and "Nothing to Prove" are worth mentioning as well, but then everything else sort of sinks into a sea of mediocrity. It's a good album for the good songs, but not good enough to be their best.
Corporate music magazines always like to emphasize that this album didn't sell as well as the self-titled, as if that somehow makes it worse. Considering that Milli Vanilli won a Grammy, I somehow doubt the public's opinion is necessarily what makes or breaks an album. Anyway, Goldfinger's still doing the ska thing with this album, although they're branching a bit into punk. The majority of people probably know this album for the track "Superman," which was apparantly in some movie back in the day. "My Head," the anti-skier anthem "S.M.P.," (Skiers Must Perish) "Question," and "Disorder" are all good songs that demonstrate Goldfinger's gradual shift away from ska.
One thing you have to get ready for, though, is that this is one of Goldfinger's slower albums. If you like mid-tempo songs over speedy thrashing, this might be the album for you. But if you don't, you might be in for a long ride. "20 Cent Goodbye," "This Lonely Place," and the best song on the entire album, "Chris Cayton," are definitely the stand-out tracks. When I first heard this album, I admit that due to its slowness, I didn't think it was anything special. But this CD grows on you, and the songs get stuck in your head very easily. This is Goldfinger's last "true" ska album, and it does the genre good.
If you couldn't figure it out from the title, this is a live EP of all covers. On one hand, releasing an entire selection of covers doesn't pull any musical punches. But on the other hand, hearing a pop-punk band actually give props to the Buzzcocks (Goldfinger covers "You Say You Don't Love Me") made my day. Goldfinger covers all the songs, no matter what the genre, in a pop-punk style. It's good to hear bands changing a song to fit their own style rather than blandly playing it the way it's supposed to sound. A pop-punk version of the Cure's "Just Like Heaven?" Damn hilarious! While the fact that it's nothing but covers wears out its replay value pretty fast, it's not all bad.
This is Goldfinger's most well-balanced album. It has some ska elements mixed with enough pop-punk and rock to keep them from being a casualty of endlessly making the same album over and over. "Carry On" and the rockin' "San Simeon" have that mellower ska sound that prevailed on the self-titled and Hang-Ups, while first single "Counting the Days," "Don't Say Goodbye," "You Think It's A Joke," and "Pick A Fight" show the band turning to a pop-punk/rock sound. Of course, you probably know this album for their cover of the 80's hit "99 Red Balloons." While everyone seems to love that song, it just doesn't do it for me - although John Feldmann singing in German is hilarious.
Goldfinger finally chooses a good track to open the album with "I'm Down." This sets the stage for the rest of the album to be different from what we've seen of Goldfinger so far. It's a bit like skacore, but with less ska...somehow. Although Stomping Ground is popular with teenage skater types, don't be fooled into thinking this is a teeneybopper album. It shows a maturity that we haven't seen from Goldfinger in their past albums, even in the sappy relationship songs. "The End of the Day" is a perfect example of that. The only detraction is blatant filler songs like "Bro" or "Donut Dan." But other than that, this is a good place for new fans to start and Goldfinger's best effort to date.
Not bad for a pop-punk album. But compared to the rest of Goldfinger's back catalouge, this is fairly mediocre. When I first heard single "Open Your Eyes," I thought to myself, "That's odd. Goldfinger used to be this happy ska-tinted band. Now they've apparantly become really, really angry." But with the exception of that song, this CD isn't that angry. But it's not the carefree sound of before, either. It's just middle-of-the-road pop-punk, with no fathomable direction. I don't know if they really want to get on the radio and MTV again, (hey, all of John Feldmann's proteges are huge mall punk hits - Good Charlotte, The Used, Mest...why not him, too?) or if they've completely run out of creative ground to cover. I'm leaning towards a combo of those two.
On one hand, this CD sounds sort of like an attempt at changing their sound gone wrong when they chickened out for fear of losing fans. I mean, "Spokesman" and "Radio" are slightly different from Goldfinger's normal fare, but stop short of being a new direction. On the whole, this album is mid-tempo tunes about relationships and teenage anger (even though they're in their 30's) at weird subjects, like MTV (ironic) and of course, the subject every punk band complains about, porn. The only problem is, none of the tracks are that noticeable. They all sort of blend together with none getting stuck in your head. It's not a horrible album, but not a great Goldfinger album.