Now this is SoCal punk done right. Vocalist Dexter Holland has a whiny, but almost psychotic voice. I think I was hooked on this band from the moment I heard his cocky, insane imitation of a serial killer on "Beheaded." ("Beheaded! Bloody mess all over my clothes!") The stage is set with opening track "Jennifer Lost the War," an youth anthem about the media shunning those truly in need. The Offspring are as political as ever with this one. "Tehran" speaks out against the US' actions in Iran, and would later be redone as "Baghdad" a few years later (and re-released for ol' Bush Jr's WMD failure!). And of course, it wraps up with the infamous "Kill the President," which would probably get the band blacklisted in today's world.
The Offspring follow an 80's punk sound for this album, with only a few tracks, such as "Crossroads," hinting at the more pop-punk sound they would be developing in the mid-90's. I think what puts this album a bit above Smash in my books is that it has the production value I like best. It's lo-fi enough to almost sound like it was recorded live, but all the instruments can be heard individually, and the vocals don't sound like they were recorded on a four-track. The guitar interplay of the band is just awesome, and is what adds to how great this debut is. This has got to be one of the greatest debuts ever from a band that is still relatively current. Whether you like punk or pop-punk, this is one of those albums you should check out.
The Offspring are delving slightly away from the 80's punk sound, possibly because it is no longer the 80's. This album is poppier than the self-titled, but still brings the rock. In its day, it was refered to as "pop-punk," but this no watered-down skater punk. Unlike the pop-punk bands of today, the Offspring are still politically motivated in their songwriting, with tracks like "LAPD," which speaks out against the brutality of the LA police force. This album showcases the Offspring's unique Middle Eastern-style guitar interplay, which is definitely their coolest style of all. Unlike the self-titled, this CD doesn't sound dated at all.
"Session," "Hypodermic," "Take it Like a Man," and "Forever and a Day" showcase the Offspring in a mix of catchy punk and darker, serious topics. There's a lot of potential here. Oh sure, the entire band is still immature and new to the scene, and Dexter Holland often pens some incredibly stupid lyrics, and falls into a cliche punk rock style of singing. However, it's never so bad that you want to take out the album. The band has a surprising amount of skill considering how young they are at this point, and are constantly trying to make every song creative and different. Despite their small drawbacks, the Offspring are definitely going to get much better.
This was the Offspring's leap into the mainstream. It is so far the best-selling independent album of all time, and along with the likes of Green Day's Dookie, responsible for bringing punk rock to the forefront of the mainstream. This is simple, straight-forward punk rock, with some poppier overtones, such as the reggae-tinted "What Happened To You" or the infamous single "Self Esteem." The Offspring continue to hone their middle Eastern/Hispanic influenced guitar lines with the likes of awesome anti-gang single "Come Out and Play." This is a record for the masses, while still being completely listenable.
The record is very consistent, which is probably what makes it such a great album. There's no real moment when you think, "Man, this was just put on to take up space." The confused alternative kids needed something after the death of grunge, and this was it. Screaming out lyrics amid pounding drums and three chord bashing or psychotic riffs somehow getting airplay? Crazy! All of what the Offspring has been trying to achieve on the last 2 albums comes together in some sort of mash for this one: poppy but with focused rage. Smash is a bit of SoCal surf punk, pop-punk, and hard rock, but it's a good listen all the way through. The amazing production quality makes this the album you should probably start with.
This album marks the Offspring's ascent into the world of major labels. After Smash's success, they immediately signed to Columbia, causing punks of all kinds to label the band as "sell outs." However, despite the corporate record label the band might be on, I think this is still a good album - and the last consistent album the Offspring ever put out before degenerating into hackneyed radio singles. This is still music to jump around headbanging to, while the lyrics still retain some sort of intelligence and insight. Even if I won't retain any scene points for saying so, I think this is a good, solid album.
You can see, however, that the Offspring are going to go in a more "novelty" direction, which is disapponting - but not enough to ruin the album. Ixnay opens with an introduction track featuring good ol' Jello Biafra mocking parental advisory. From there, you are thrown into "The Meaning of Life," one of the Offspring's fastest songs. Other songs, like "Me and My Old Lady," "I Choose," "Amazed," and "Way Down the Line" are good, solid Offspring tracks true to their California pop-punk fare. This album is poppier than Smash, even though it wasn't as successful on the charts, but the band still has a creative spark that they've been missing in their newer releases. It's mainstream rock done right - too bad it wouldn't last forever.
Oh geez. This album unfortunately marks the Offspring's descent away from one of the greatest punk bands of the modern day into yet another group of lame jock-rock frat boys. "Pretty Fly for a White Guy," which attempts to mock rap-rock groups but ironically sounds much poppier and overproduced than most of them do, is the ultimate nail in the coffin to many fans who already doubted the band for signing to Columbia. This album is overproduced, gimmicky, and inconsistent. There are a few songs that retain the same Offspring feel, but they are so few and far in between that it's almost depressing.
This album still retains a 7 due to the classic Offspring-sounding "Have You Ever," "Staring at the Sun," "The End Of The Line," and "No Brakes," plus "Pay the Man," which is pretty awesome despite being way too long for its own good. The other tracks are all either weak attempts at remaking past success (Has anyone else noticed that "Self Esteem" and "She's Got Issues" are more or less the same song, except "She's Got Issues" blows?), or so bad that I'm not even going to touch them. The other poppy bad single, "Why Don't You Get a Job?" completely rips off the Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," which is the perfect way to sum the bad parts of the album - a shoddy rip-off, either of themselves or jock bands.
More or less the sequel to Americana. There are some good songs, but there are also some god-awful songs. Take, for example, "Original Prankster," which is the band's next attempt at the already horrible "Pretty Fly for a White Guy." There's nothing really memorable about this album. It's exactly what you would expect from the current incarnation of the Offspring, which generally is not such a good thing. The production has gotten a bit more bearable and less over the top, though, so I consider this album to be slightly better than Americana.
The main problem with this album is that the songs start out good, but the band has such an obsession with major label studio effects that they rapidly go downhill. Take, for example, "Special Delivery." It was not so bad, until they added that pointless tribal chant right in the middle of the song. What were they on? I mean, just because you have a sound effect machine doesn't mean you have to use it. However, I will always stand by my view that "Want You Bad," "Million Miles Away," "Living in Chaos," and especially "Come Out Swinging" are good songs, if not as good as the original Offspring.
And somehow, the Offspring repeat their past mistakes - yet make it worse. I have no clue how they pulled this one off, or what record exec allowed them to pull this off. First of all, the record itself is very short. Now, there have been amazing short records, but this is not one of them. There are only 10 real tracks, discounting an intro track and the pathetic attempt at being funny, "When You're In Prison," which parodies a 30's style informative movie about not dropping the soap. This may sound funny, but it goes on for waaay too long. The whole album sounds like it was recorded in a day or two for maximum profits.
The songs themselves are the most lyrically weak they've ever been - just take one listen to "Da Hui." When they aren't writing bad attempts at hardcore songs, they're making pointless novelty tracks that sound like they're straight off of TRL. "Worst Hangover Ever?" "Spare Me the Details?" What in god's name were they thinking when those songs transfered from a bad idea to an actual recording? Bleh. The only remotely enjoyable track is "(Can't Get My) Head Around You," and even that's pushing it. I've only listened to this album a few times through, and I'll probably never listen to it again. I can't believe I wasted my money on this one.