Timmy’s Review: The Offspring’s New Album!

After almost a 9 year wait, the new album from The Offspring finally dropped! I got this bad boy (which I did pay for with my own hard earned money), popped it into my CD player (yes I'm old school), and it has not stopped spinning since! Now I ask myself, am I digging this album so much because it's a great album? Or is it because I haven't had new Offspring in almost a decade? To be honest, as much as I do love this album, I think the answer is more of the latter.

I've loved The Offspring since their 2nd album Ignition dropped back in 1992. I finally, for the first time, got to go see them perform live in Spokane just before the Pandemic hit in June of 2019. (You can read and see pictures from that show here). So I've been pumped for this album for quite a while. In fact, ever since they dropped the single Coming For You, back in 2015. One great thing about this album, Let The Bad Times Roll, is that they did include the 6 year old song on the album. (I hate when artists release a single, and never include it on an album).

First, let me get some of my complaints out of the way about this album. It seems short to me, but for a punk album, the 33+ minute length is pretty standard, but like all good things, I just wanted more! The final track of the album is called Lullaby, but it's just a reimagining of the albums title track, done at half the length. The band has done this before, but in those times, the songs have taken more of a comedic tone. This one feels over processed & muddied, and I honestly, didn't really enjoy it. The last thing I have to say (in the complaint department) is with their fresh take on Gone Away. A song that was first released on their 1997's Ixnay on the Hombre album. This time around the ballad is redone with beautiful piano & orchestra mix. It is cool, but I would have liked a song that would have been even more drastically changed by this treatment, something like Dirty Magic or if they want to take a comedic twist, Walla Walla, or Meaning of Life. I would have also liked if the cover songs, Here Kitty Kitty & their holiday song "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)", would have been included, but I understand why they weren't.

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Things that I love about this album. Dexter's voice is just as strong as ever! The rocker is 55 years old, and if anything, his voice sounds a little higher, but still strong as hell! The guitar riffs and over all pacing of the music is just as fast and upbeat as any other Offspring album. You get this album, you know what you're going to get, and they do deliver! Especially with tracks like Army of One & The Opioid Diaries. The real winner on this album, for me is the 7th track, (KATS featured) We Never Have Sex Anymore. It is something fresh, different, jazzy, funny, rocking, and flat out awesome! All and all, I feel this is a solid album! It makes me excited for a hopefully touring summer, and a new album, that hopefully won't take a decade to release.