The Offspring Deliver On New Project “Days Go BY”

The Offspring have made another Offspring album. That sentence says it all, yet it says nothing.  The fact is that either you like the band or don’t.  Now within that group that loves the band are two groups that cross in the middle; the group that loves their punk songs and the group that loves their novelty songs.  The new album will make all Offspring fans happy, and it just may make a few new fans.  A lot more after the jump.

Somebody recently asked The Offspring if they were still ‘punk rock’ and I think their answer should be ‘hells yes’.  I used to think that fact of the matter is “punk’ had to be that loud sneering sound over quick barre chord changes, when the truth is ‘punk bands’ have always leaned a little rock or a little pop and the best have always been very experimental.  Before we look at this album lets look at a little scale of “punk rock”.  10 would be the punkiest, 1 would be the poppiest.

10-Black Flag/Iggy & Stooges
9-Germs/Dead Kennedy’s
8-Sex Pistols
7-Clash/Rancid
6-Ramones
5-Nirvana
4-Offspring
3-Green Day
2-Blink 182
1-Bowling for Soup

Now I’m not including a bazillion bands here, but the point wasn’t to necessarily show the history of punk, but to show where the Offspring are on a punk to rock to pop scale.  So The Offspring are more punk than Green Day, but a long ways from jamming safety pins in their cheeks.  Among the punk that I’ve enjoyed, along with the fast bar chord riffing, there has always been secret agent riffs, strange samples and beats from other genres that almost make no sense, but sound great when integrated.

Now why this ‘mini-lesson’ on punk?  Well it’s important when talking about “Days Go By” by The Offspring.  The new single represents a kinder, more thoughtful Offspring, but rest assured, that’s just the boys stretching their wings; there’s plenty of full on punk rave-ups on this album. The first track “The Future Is Now” delivers a slab of classic Offspring punk.  That point is revisited through the album, but the Offspring stop to goof around every once in a while (it wouldn’t be an Offspring album if they didn’t).  Smack in the center of the album is a cut of pure pop that I kind of wish wasn’t there. You may have seen the video of “California Cruisin’” which is obviously the bands attempt at a pop hit. The song is unbelievably catchy, but I just can’t handle the female hip-hop parts.  This particular song probably shouldn’t be on this album, because it varies so much from what the Offspring do.  I would have prefered if they would have saved it for a “Greatest Hits’ album or a soundtrack album.  There’s a trademark ‘novelty” track on the album, the first is called “O.C. Guns” which features a very catchy chorus of dirty Spanish words alongside a mariachi sample.  There’s also a VERY catchy somewhat novelty song called “I Want A Secret Family With You”.  My guess as to their next “radio single”?  I’m going with the lead track ‘The Future Is Now’.

So what’s between the traditional punk and the novelty stuff?  Well stuff that’s a little more rock, some cool beats,  a punk ballad and other good stuff.  Also very interesting are two tracks that actually seem to be influenced by The Dead Kennedy's (#9 on the list).  The inspiration comes on the chord progression on one song and on another it sounds like Noodles is actually channeling the tone to the Kennedy's classic "Holiday In Cambodia" (but don't worry, they're not HARDCORE tracks).   So let me answer the ultimate question for you, ‘should you download some tracks, or get the album”?  This goes back to whether you’re a fan of the Offspring or not.  The fact is that NO ONE who has ever loved this band will be let down by the album.  If you’re not a fan and the song “Days Go By” hasn’t converted you to the cause, then there’s nothing on the album as mainstream as that track.

The bottom line is, you can’t compare an Offspring album with anything other than other Offspring albums, my verdict is-it’s better than most and it will spend all summer in my c.d. player and my cloud drive. These guys are defiantly playing to their strenghts.  Get the whole thing.