For me, The Offspring's bread and butter is catchy pop-punk tunes, courtesy of the happy-go-lucky surfer guys in the band (perhaps a modern day version of The Beach Boys?). So the howls of protest at the alleged "selling out" of these later albums doesn't ring true for me. Having said that, there are still some fine moments when the lyrics of strong emotion and poignant lyrics hidden amongst the catchy riffs.
The mood is established perfectly by Come Out Swinging, and while its chorus is much better suited to a moshpit than critical listening in an armchair, it remains a solid effort. In many ways, it is similar to the closing track, Videos. The other "moshpit thrash" styled song is Conspiracy of One, of which the highlight is the great power chorus.
However, there are also some lowpoints on the album. Obviously, the "oo-ga-cha-ga" chorus in Special Delivery ruins an otherwise good song. Which is a real shame, because the bridge's refrain ("You can't kill a man when he's got no hope") is fantastic. One Fine Day's has a great Dropkick Murphys-eque high-energy style for the chorus. However the rest of that song, especially the verses, is cringingly amateur-hour. Finally, the ballad Denial Revisisted reminds me a lot of the clunky mess that is Blink-182's Adam's Song. On the plus side, Denial Revisited's chorus, although cliched, is very engaging.
Sadly, the audio quality is also often in the "gripes" department. Often the bass guitar and drums get messy in the chorus, both with a woofly bottom end and cymbals which sound like a badly compressed mp3. The bass guitar seems to drift in and out of some songs, and at times is quite boomy. The guitar sound is much better, and cuts through wonderfully. While the high-pitched lyrics are probably polarising, personally I really like them, especially after seeing them live and realising how much intensity is required to punch them out in real life. Listening to singers like this on CD, one perhaps becomes blase about the intensity required for this style of vocals, however it really is impressively hard work to maintain throughout a set.
Did I forget to include Original Prankster in the lowpoints paragraph above? Actually, no. Sure, it has a cheesy pop style which sounds similar to Pretty Fly For a While Guy (a ditty we've all heard a million times). But it's actually a catchy tune with some interesting lyrics. Speaking of the band's transition to the radio-friendly sound, it's a philosophical question: do they deserve praise for trying something new instead of churning out the same stuff year after year, or do the cheesy add-ons deserve criticism? I'll sit on the fence here, with Original Prankster falling into the former category, but Living In Chaos doesn't work for me at all. Then again, I've never really been a fan of the Linkin Park rap-punk combination, so perhaps that explains it.
Another slower song, Vultures, brings us back to the philosophical ponders of whether a band should seek to explore new styles. Vultures could perhaps be described as a reheat of Gone Away, which means I really like it. (Perhaps this means I was too harsh in my judgement of The Police for doing the same! However, The Offspring are less highbrow than The Police, so it would matter less for them...) Anyway, Dammit I Changed Again is also similar to their early albums, in its perfect combination of introspective lyrics and "tough guy" punk-rock musicality.
Now for my two favourite songs on the album: Want You Bad and Million Miles Away. These are both fantastic power pop-punk tunes with huge rock energy and fantastic choruses, somehow reminding me of Pennywise. A minor gripe is the weak guitar solo in Million Miles Away, however the guitar riff is fantastic, as is the beauty in their simplicity (ie just soaring rock'n'roll, without any fluff attached). And the way Want You Bad builds up through the bridge into the final chorus is a masterstroke.
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