CD Review: Offspring, The - Days Go By

Written by Christopher Nosnibor Monday, 09 July 2012 12:57

Artist: The Offspring
Title: Days Go By
Genre: Punk / Pop
Release Date: 22nd June 2012
Label: Columbia (Sony Music)

Album Review

There was a time when no-one really gave a hoot about OC punk band THE OFFSPRING. Then they got signed to a major and went huge, taking the world by storm with ‘Pretty Fly for a White Guy’, conceivably one of the most irritatingly catchy pseudo-punk tracks of all time. But that was way back in 1998. Fast forward to 2012 - 14 years and another three albums down the line, and ‘Days Go By’ sees THE OFFSPRING return older and wiser, right? Well, perhaps a little. The cover art and title might suggest so, and the lyrical content is certainly more reflective than anything else.

It shouldn’t be surprising, given the time it’s taken to get the album together: they’re certainly older, if not wiser. After repeated postponements and reworking, the band could have put out half a dozen albums in the same time, and you have to wonder if it was worth the wait, and if the endless fiddling hasn’t killed any immediacy the songs may have had at their genesis. The inclusion of ‘Dirty Magic’ - rerecorded from their 1992 album ‘Ignition’ is perhaps an indicator of just how much the band have - or haven’t - evolved, and it would be easy to see it as a sign they’re running thin on new ideas, too, not least of all because it’s the best song on the album by a mile. But then, THE OFFSPRING were never about new ideas: their thing’s always been to peddle variations on the same punk-pop blueprint, and while punk purists hate them with a passion, the kids love ‘em - although many of ‘the kids’ are themselves in their mid to late thirties, with kids of their own.

But the truth is, you can’t polish a turd, and as long and as hard as they’ve tried, the album THE OFFSPRING have delivered fails chronically to ignite sounding overproduced, sluggish and worst of all, painfully mainstream. ‘The Future is Now’ harks back to 1984 and does a reasonable job of capturing the vibe, but it’s got bounce, hooks and melodic backing vocals that diffuse any serious suggestions of angst. It also sounds very like ‘The Final Countdown’, which is cause for concern. Trouble is, it only gets worse. The punk attitude’s spectacularly absent on the title track, too: straight rock that draws together first-album era FOO FIGHTERS (think ‘This is a Call’) with hints of, er, THE ALARM.

‘Cruising California’ is closer to ‘Pretty Fly’ than the rest of the album, and even replicates the ‘uh-huhs’ and lamecore white rapping. Fine, but it’s also as gimmicky as hell, while being stylistically and sonically closer to The Black Eyed Peas and Katy Perry than anything a self-respecting punk act would release, down to the auto-tuned vocals and shockingly bad lyrics that aren’t a million miles away from ‘California Gurls’, and ‘O.C. Guns’ sounds like a demo EMINEM recorded while high and then scrapped because it was dross. There’s a whiff on NICKELBACK about the plodding ‘All I Have Left is You’, and I’m left wondering what the hell happened. Granted, I was never a rabid fan of the band, but ‘Days Go By’ is insipid, overproduced and so commercial as to be the antithesis of punk. Still, as a pop album it’s quite passable.


Tracklist

01. The Future Is Now
02. Secrets From The Underground
03. Days Go By
04. Turning Into You
05. Hurting As One
06. Cruising California (Bumpin’ In My Trunk)
07. All I Have Left Is You
08. Oc Guns
09. Dirty Magic
10. I Wanna Secret Family (With You)
11. Dividing By Zero
12. Slim Pickens Does The Right Thing And Rides The Bomb To Hell


Line-up

Dexter Holland - vocals, guitar
Noodles - guitar
Greg K - bass
Pete Parada - drums


Website

http://www.offspring.com/


Cover Picture




Rating

Music: 3
Sound: 8
Total: 5.5 /10