Puddle of Mudd were one of the many neo-grunge bands that cluttered the American rock landscape in 2001/2002, ten years after
Nirvana brought the sound crashing into the mainstream with
Nevermind.
Nirvana and many of their grunge peers flamed out rather quickly, because they were an underground phenomenon uncomfortable in the mainstream, where there were fans that liked the sound of the bands, not the sentiments. Which means that there was an audience for bands that replicated the heavy feel, including some vague angst-ridden sentiment, but left behind the unpredictability, weirdness, and art of the first wave of grunge bands. Several post-grunge bands came close in the immediate aftermath of grunge, but nobody perfected it until
Puddle of Mudd and their ilk came along ten years later.
Puddle of Mudd were fortunate enough to work with
Andy Wallace, the man who mixed
Nevermind, and on both their 2001 debut,
Come Clean, and its 2003 sequel,
Life on Display, he manages to recreate elements of
Nirvana's sound, but only if they were a plodding heavy metal band instead of a noisy, art-punk outfit. Which means they can occasionally sound like
Alice in Chains, but where that band had deep metal roots,
Puddle of Mudd's vocabulary begins and ends with grunge. What makes them different is that they're grunge for frat boys. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine