REVIEWS:
The Offspring started out as an underground punk band with their first two indie label albums, their self-titled 1989 release and Ignition before the heavily political single "Come Out And Play" from their third album Smash broke the band big, and helped by two other huge 'smash' hits, that album went on to sell over 8 million copies. After their creative highpoint, the strong but commercially disappointing Ixnay On The Hombre, they began to lose their integrity and direction somewhat, as their novelty tendencies only hinted at on previous albums in their career became sadly apparent on the commercially successful circus act known as Americana, though Conspiracy Of One was a rebound of sorts.
For awhile, though, the Offspring served as some kind of great compromise between the clashing punk, alternative and metal establishments. While they weren't really one dimensional, they were still a bit too limited in songwriting abilities, and the horrible non-talent of skins player Ron Welty (maybe the worst drummer in an established band playing today) unfortunately stood out. However, Dexter Holland made up for those weaknesses occasionally, as a forceful and intriguing frontman, usually spitting out anger and attitude of some sort.
--Nick Karn
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COMMENTS
noodles has a kick ass guitar, its rapped in frigin duct tape!
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
While many of the songs on the Offspring's second album Ignition are well-written and played with a lot of energy, there is one considerable weakness - the songs are somewhat formulaic and all follow the same plodding weak drumbeat with little variance in riffs. But there sure is a lot of attitude (check out the first few seconds of the opening "Session", an angry relationship song) and venom ("L.A.P.D.", a vicious attack on the police force dealing with their behavior during the Los Angeles riots around that time). Catchy melodies can also be found in the pounding "Kick Him When He's Down", "Take It Like A Man" (great driving song that shows the metal side of the band most), the anthemic "We Are One" and the classic punk rebellion of "Burn It Up" and "No Hero". "Dirty Magic" even has a bit of atmosphere going for it, guitar tone-wise. Ignition isn't as worthwhile as it could be, as I mostly hear inexperience within the band, and weaker tunes like "Get It Right", "Forever And A Day" and "Nothing From Something" are passable filler. It's a decent album overall, though, and things would get better artistically and commercially.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
The album that made the Offspring household names - a solid attitude-laden, anthemic, catchy, alternative punk record in Smash, which went on to sell over eight million copies (as if that means anything) for just this reason. It's a more focused and confident album than the last, although there are still the occasional lapses into very generic territory - especially a number of same-sounding first half tunes like "Something To Believe In", "Nitro (Youth Energy)" and even "Gotta Get Away", which is a mostly bland hit single. The vicious "Bad Habit", however, is a bonafide classic - Dexter Holland's song about those wonderful careless drivers on the road is the true keeper here, while the politically direct biggest hit single "Come Out And Play" is solid and meaningful (although musically a bit derivative), and the side closer "Self Esteem" is a decent teenage anthem dealing with the overused subject of bad relationships that's catchy, but also a bit too repetitive and tedious.
The second half is a little bit better, but not by much - the rhythm section is still totally unprofessional, so that makes the potentially nihilistic string of the last 6 songs packed into a 13 minute time span somewhat plodding, although again, these songs are youthful, energetic and socially aware - "What Happened To You?" (dealing with the alcohol abuse of a friend), "Killboy Powerhead", "Not The One" (problematic world affairs) and the effective venom of the closing title track ends the album on a high note. This is a recommended album if you're curious about the mid 90s "punk" revival - it's nothing spectacular, but it is a highly entertaining listen nonetheless.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Ixnay On The Hombre was mistakenly called a "sophomore slump" by some critics who were obviously not aware the band had two albums out before their big breakthrough Smash. While it didn't touch the sales figures or lacked a huge hit single (the closest thing to one was an unconventional power ballad "Gone Away", a highly melodic, passionate yet still noticeably heavy first half closer), this is easily their most adventurous, exciting, and consistent album thus far, when their metal and hardcore punk roots, plus a bit of Jane's Addiction in the mix, especially apparent on "Me And My Old Lady" and "I Choose", which are very entertaining, well-written highlights that are among the band's most infectious numbers - of course, that's what this influence brings to the table. It's mixed with their hooks and Dexter Holland's sarcastic lyricism, which is at its' best here, before it would fall into obvious self-parody on the next album.
Even the more straightforward punk numbers aren't generic bores, with "All I Want", "Leave It Behind", "The Meaning Of Life" and "Mota" boasting a nice combination of adrenaline rush and hooks (particularly the former, which was a great choice for the first single, but it unfortunately didn't do anything), and "Cool To Hate" having cool, if cliched, tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Meanwhile, "Don't Pick It Up" mixes ska and hilarious teenage humor together successfully, and "Way Down The Line" does the same, while at the same time suggesting in an effective fashion how the younger generation tends to repeat their older family members' mistakes. All these tracks are good workouts for the band that hide their obvious weaknesses as well as they possibly can. The last two songs, "Amazed" and "Change The World", though, are a bit weaker than the rest, and I could do without the needless musical jokes (the spoken Jello Biafra intro "Disclaimer" and "Intermission").
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
This album was a commercial rebound for the band after the unfortunately shunned Ixnay On The Hombre, but with their newfound sales going strong again, a loss of artistic integrity was surely apparent on Americana, an album where this 30-something band tried to appeal way too much to teenage kids in the late 90s. You need to look no further than the big hit singles here. "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)" clones the riff to earlier hit "Come Out And Play" with an annoying novelty melody and terrible lyrics about a kid trying and failing to be a "homey" (on top of that, it samples the hilarious German count intro from a far superior rock classic, Def Leppard's "Rock Of Ages", which makes me wish for that song to come on instead), while "Why Don't You Get A Job?" is a cheap ripoff of the Beatles' classic "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", and is an almost as worthless teenage novelty tune.
The other songs aren't too much better - most of them simply rehash old riffs and melodies from past albums, which suggests the band's supply of decent musical ideas has almost completely run dry. There are just enough worthwhile highlights to dismiss this release as a completely stale one, however - "The Kids Aren't Alright" (yes, it's actually a play on The Who song "The Kids Are Alright") and the title track recapture some of the entertaining, hook-filled vibe of the last album, while "She's Got Issues", although a little too much of a novelty, still has great humor, and the top highlight, the 8-minutes plus (yes, you heard me right) closer "Pay The Man", complete with sitar, mysterious lyrics, and a daring arrangement. Hmm... maybe I was wrong - this song could be a hint of great ambition here.
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
The novelty aspect of The Offspring's sound that marred a few of the last album's songs is more minimized here, and as a result Conspiracy Of One is an improvement over that effort, which hinted at creative stagnation. Thankfully, on this album the band comes up with ways to face it, as the songs throughout are for the most part refinements of their standard pop/punk formula by focusing more on really catchy, non-rehashed vocal melodies ala Smash and going for more diversity ala Ixnay. For instance, a funk groove dominates "Living In Chaos", echoey guitar lines color "Vultures", there's techno elements in "Special Delivery", and "Denial, Revisited" recalls slow Smashing Pumpkins-esque balladry. That side of the album is probably its' weakest, as those departures don't come off as well as the highlights of the record, but as weak as they may be, at least they're not stagnant.
The first few songs on the record are among the most solid - "Come Out Swinging" really lives up to its' title as a high-speed punk number with a slower contrasting bridge to start off the album, "Original Prankster", despite really awful lyrics, is an improvement on the "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)" style on account of a much better vocal melody that doesn't come off as a "Come Out And Play" rehash, while "Want You Bad" and "Million Miles Away" are really enjoyable, fast paced pop-oriented numbers, and the title track is good old school punk to close out the album. Overall, this record does push 7 on account of its' really solid highlights, though its' inconsistency and somewhat slight, immature numbers like "One Fine Day" and "Dammit, I Changed Again" don't allow me to give it that.
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COMMENTS
[email protected] (Andrew McQuillan)
I don't have this album but the singles alone make Americana (a good album) sound like Smash or Ignition. Million Miles Away is the worst single they've ever released. And some punk music just shouldn't sound so perky (Want You Bad) without more guitar muscle. I found even the most poppy song on Americana to have at least some guitar action. Of course, I don't consider the Offspring to be as punk as they used to be. After all, they play shows with American Hi-Fi nowadays.
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