The Offspring- Days Go By

Yet another Offspring album?? Don't worry, this is the last one! The reason for the binge is that I became obsessed with The Offspring after seeing them at Soundwave one year. (The binge also included Splinter, but that one very quickly found its way to the rubbish bin, of course...)

Days Go By is The Offspring's ninth album. It was released in 2012, four years after Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace.

The Future Is Now kicks things off with brilliantly poetic lyrics, and nicely incorporating a bit of emo/goth styling. This means crunchy guitars in verses and soaring chorus; both of which are traditional Offspring qualities, but this new twist on them is a nice new treat. It's more of the same with Secret Show From The Underground, which is totally fine by me!

There's a few grips though, the first of which affects the whole album: recording quality. The bass is boomy and the cymbals are often harsh and messy. Next up, Hurting As One features a vintage Offspring chorus (translation: a brilliant chorus), complete with trademark howls in the background. Unfortunately, the the rest of the song is too disjointed to get absorbed into.

Sorry, but things here are gonna get worse before they get better...

On Days Go By, I can't get past the notion that the main riff is a rip-off of Foo Fighters' Times Like These. Actually, the whole song smells pretty similar. And I Wanna Secret Family constantly reminds me of Bowling For Soup's 1985. Hmmm...

Next in the firing line is Cruising California. What the hell is this rubbish? Katy Perry perhaps?? The Offspring have produced some pretty shameful efforts for pop singles over the years, and this is possibly the worst of them. I actually struggle to believe this is the same band as the rest of the album.

All I Have Left Is You is another superficial pop effort, again at odds with The Offspring's traditions. However, despite my stubborn ideological objections, it's a fairly passable pop-rock-ballad song.

OC Guns also shows worrying signs at the start, that perhaps we are in for another tacky pop effort. But it soon reveals itself to be a rocksteady masterpiece; a fantastic groove overlaid with badass lyrics, giving off vibes of Cherry Poppin' Daddies' Susquehanna album at its best.

For me, The Offspring suddenly made a lot more sense when someone explained that they should be considered similar to a modern-day Ramones. What's my point here? Dirty Magic is a direct reminder of this theory, thanks to a guitar riff that sounds a lot like some later Ramones songs. As for the rest of the song, the lyrics don't have any appeal for me, so unfortunately I can't really get into it.

Skipping over some more fairly lacklustre songs, we arrive at Dividing By Zero and are finally treated to some fast-paced energy, plus a brilliant and bouncy chorus. There's not much to say that hasn't already been said about earlier Offspring songs, but after all these years it still remains a recipe for heaps of fun.

Then Slim Pickens Does The Right Thing And Rides The Bomb To Hell features some fantastically insightful, imagery-laden and slightly obscure lyrics (eg "Dance around the fire that we once believed in"). Which all sits on top of a wonderfully infectious bouncing energy.

Favourite songs

The Future Is Now, Secret Show From The Underground, OC Guns, Dividing By Zero, Slim Pickens Does The Right Thing (and The Offspring write a ridiculously long song title!)

I diggit?

Before the last two songs, I was thinking that the good times were few and far between on this album, but then Dividing By Zero and Slim Pickens appear from nowhere to save the day. In the end, it's a great album.

The Offspring- Ixnay On The Hombre

Ixnay On The Hombre is The Offspring's forth album. It was released in 1997, three years after Smash.

This also means it was released only one year before Americana, which was a surprising discovery to me. Ixnay and Americana are generally considered bookends of old-school and new-age Offspring, and I never realised how short the gap between these eras actually is. 

The Meaning Of Life has plenty of energy and some pop novelties tacked on to grab a bit of attentions. But fundamentally there are no effective hooks in the songwriting, so the song doesn't have an real lasting appeal. The same goes for Mota.

But then I quite like Me & My Old Lady, so my opinion doesn't make any sense! In this case, the cheesy pop-rock is somehow a bit of silly fun.

Things get very serious for Gone Away, and the results are incredible. It has all the power of a stadium-rock anthem, yet also with the humblest of emotions. A highlight for me is the unusual drum pattern, which perhaps distinguishes the song from the millions of other rock ballads out there. And, of course, the soaring singalong chorus, which is an all-time classic.

All I Want is energetic, messy and unrefined. I totally dig it! A particular highlight is the howling chorus. However, I might be biased about this song, because I have fond memories of it from the videogame Crazy Taxi. It's the same happy story for Way Down The Line, which also adds some great pop hooks.

As usual, this Offspring album features a lame attempt at ska. Although the a Buck-O-Nine style used for Don't Pick It Up actually works quite well for a change, shock horror!

Finally, Amazed brings in a bit of grunge influence to inject some variety. I find the verses a bit indistinct, but the chorus holds the song together nicely.

Favourite songs

Gone Away, All I Want, Way Down The Line

I diggit?

It turns out that Ixnay isn't quite the consistent and well-resolved album I thought it was. But a couple of high-energy romps, plus the rock-anthem brilliance of Gone Away, means that I'm glad to own a copy.

The Offspring- Americana

Americana is The Offspring's fifth album, which was hugely successful. It was released in 1998, one year after Ixnay On The Hombre.

Have You Ever is perhaps a signpost that this album is a turning point for The Offspring. The majority of the song is pretty generic early-Offspring. And there's nothing wrong with that! Then the ending gives us a quick sample of the upcoming new-age Offspring sound: catchy Ramones-esque pop-punk. Of which I am also a fan. End Of The Line is a solid execution of this new style.

Unfortunately, Pretty Fly For A White Guy has been played to death. At one stage, it seemed like it was the only song on the radio! I think that once upon a time I enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek pop-punk, but that was lasted for the first few thousand times I heard it...

On the other hand, Why Don't You Get A Job never had any appeal in the first place, and only got more and more annoying with each listen. Walla Walla is another example of shallow, trashy pop-punk.

The Kids Aren't Alright manages the musical miracle of delivering fast-paced energy which is also brimming with powerful emotion. It's bouncing around with shivers running down your spine. Incredible. I guess a lot of it is due to the brilliant narrative and perfectly singalong chorus.

It's a similar situation for Feelings. A slight let-down is the chorus, which - despite being fantastic when played live - somehow doesn't stand up as well to the scrutiny of chin-stroking in a armchair.

The song Americana feels heavily inspired by "Bad Habit" from Smash. Which means it's a great song, of course!

Finally, Pay The Man is quite left field, by bringing in an Arabic influence. The integration with punk-rock is a bit awkward, but it's still an interesting experiment.

Favourite songs

Have You Ever, The Kids Aren't Alright, Americana

I diggit?

As a transitional album for the band's style, I don't think it's their best work. Regardless, there's much enjoyment to be had here (which probably means that I'm a sucker for The Offspring...)

The Clash- Combat Rock

Combat Rock is The Clash's fifth album. It was released in 1982, two years after "Sandinista!".

Know Your Rights is a passable intro. The band's trademark bleak and political vocal style could use better support from the instrumentals, but it still works out ok to establish the mood.

The headline songs of the album- Should I Stay Or Should I Go and Rock The Casbah- have never really appealed to me. The former works well as catchy pop, but doesn't have any lasting appeal. Rock the Casbah has great lyrics, but I'm not a fan of the '80s influence.

Instead, Straight To Hell is the highlight of the album for me. It sets a wonderfully intense yet sparse post-apocolyptic mood, much like The Wanderer by Johnny Cash / U2.

At the other end of the enjoyment spectrum is Overpowered by Funk. Sorry for stubbornly pigeonholing a band... but... a funk song by The Clash? Really?? Even if it were a great song, it's still completely at odds with their image and ideals.

To get to the crux of the matter, the rest of the album is pretty mediocre, and I think the reason is amateur-hour instrumentals. This is because the bleak vocals are a given, and on previous albums I think it's a big part of their style. But they rely on the smooth and wonderfully layered instrumentals to offset the bitterness. And Combat Rock has, despite the varied world-music influences, pretty uninspiring backing instrumentals.

Inoculated City even takes a lot of cues from Lost In The Supermarket (off London Calling), but unfortunately with very little of its songwriting brilliance.

Favourite songs

Straight to Hell

I diggit?

Well I can't help wondering if this really is the same band that gave us the London Calling album?? So, despite being a huge fan of The Clash, this one is going straight into the bin.

The Offspring- Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace

Well, having just finished listening to Pennywise, here's another punk-rock album but it couldn't be any more different! Here we have The Offspring's eighth album, which was released in 2008 (five years after Splinter).

Half-truism wastes no time getting into Offspring's key talent: infectious, fast-paced energy that is bags of fun. Half-truism also sees some dabbling into emo-esque breakdowns, which unfortunately feel a bit disjointed sometimes, due to some awkward transitions. But they do give the song an interesting structure and provide nice constrast. I only wish the song ended on a high, with a final burst of vintage Offspring energy.

The final song, Rise And Fall also cranks out said energy for the chorus with great results. Unfortunately, the rest of the song is a shallow ditty and gets old very quickly. Similarly, Takes Me Nowhere and Nothingtown feel generic and uninspired. And Takes Me Nowhere is strangely quieter than the previous song, perhaps due to poor mastering.

Warning: rants ahead... Trust In You is single-handedly ruined by the awful keyboard backing in the chorus. Perhaps I'm over-reacting, but it's a disturbing reminder of the woeful efforts of Hit That, Special Delivery, etc. Yuk! And then there's Offspring's somewhat amusing history of cringeworthy attempts at ska, a tradition which Let's Hear It For Rock Bottom continues, this time in a Goldfinger style. Finally, Stuff Is Messed Up has a cracking riff, but the song is let down by... ummm... everything else...

The goth-rock influences (and perhaps U2) of A Lot Like Me actually work quite well. It's not a favourite song for me, but I do appreciate the variety it injects into the album. Kristy Are You Doing Ok? is a pretty generic skate-punk ballad, but somehow I really like it. On the other hand, the other ballad, Fix You is just whiney and painful.

Finally, there's a song which is in another league: You're Gonna Go Far Kid. The song jumps all over the place with contrasting sections that are slightly disjointed, although this madness also keeps the song fresh somehow. Each section is pure gold in its own right, such as the fuax-disco verses to the swirling pre-chorus. And, of course, the highlight is the bouncing, 110% energy chorus. Thrill-a-minute brilliance.

Favourite songs

Half-truism, You're Gonna Go Far Kid, Kristy Are You Doing Ok

I diggit?

Yes. Pretty much solely for You're Gonna Go Far Kid, which is an all-time favourite Offspring song of mine.

Pennywise- Full Circle

Full Circle is Pennywise's fourth album. It was released in 1997, two years after Home Movies.

Oi-punk isn't really my cup of tea. Therefore it's no surprise that I find Fight Till You Die, Date With Destiny, Get A Life, You'll Never Make It and Nowhere Fast to be an indistinctive wall of noise. It doesn't help that the lyrics are hard to understand and the sound is quite "thin". Broken is the exception. I have no idea what makes it different, but I do quite like it.

Maybe it's sacrilegious, but I much prefer the slower, riff-rock style. Society has a fantastic instrumental intro, and the groove carriers nicely into the song. And the contrast it brings means I actually enjoy the fast-paced energy of the chorus for a change. Final Day follows the same recipe but somehow leaves me cold. What If I is another great song, and I guess proves it's not a fluke! Every Time also uses light-and-shade to great effect, resulting in a very enjoyable song.

The tempo of Bro Hymn jumps around over the place. The musicianship and recording quality are both very amateur-hour. Many of the lyrics are unintelligible... objectively there are many flaws... but, just knowing that it's an one to a young departed friend is more than enough. And that timeless singalong chorus riff conveys more emotion than mere words ever could. It all makes for a flawed and beautiful song.

Favourite songs

Society, Broken, Every Time, What If I, Bro Hymn Tribute

I diggit?

Tough call. Punk-rock takes time for the subtleties to emerge, so I made the effort to listen to this album many times, desperately hoping for something special to reveal itself. In the end, there were a few songs I liked, but it's still an album I'd rarely be inspired to listen to. So, in the end, the answer is "not really".