The Offspring, to me, has always been a band that understood that if you give the major label a single or two for commercial appeal, you can use the other tracks to write whatever you want. And throughout their career, pop-friendly cringe-inducing tracks like "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" or "Original Prankster" feel more like "are we good here" deals cut with suits, and hid a lot of their better tracks.
So when I hear tracks like "we never have sex anymore" with its wtf-induing pseudo-swing rhythm, I'm willing to forgive and press skip. But there's clearly a lot of experimentation going on this album that makes me think it might be best to proceed with caution. For decades now, a hallmark of The Offspring has been Dexter Hollands eternally youthful vocals, which are MIA on
This is not Utopia, a 1:00 Offspring-ified version of
Hall of the Mountain King (why?), and a stripped-down piano version of their song Gone Away, a song from 1997's Ixnay on the Hombre
There are some highlights. There are more traditional Offspring style tracks here such as
The Opiod Diaries,
Army of One, and
Hassan Chop. Even one of the experiments -
Coming For You - the 2015 Gary Glitter repossession that turns out to be an improvement on the original and one of the better arena rock tracks since Fall Out Boys last venture into Imagine Dragons territory.
All in all, it's a fine album. It's not going to blow your mind or end up in the Top 3 Offspring albums of all time, but like many bands entering their 4th decade of music production, it's all just throwing Noodles at the wall and seeing what sticks. And to that end, one or two of these tracks might make it into the lineup on the next tour.
I'd give the album a 2 out of 5. 1 star because a few of these songs aren't bad. And another because it didn't punch my mother.
Tracks worth trying:
Hassan Chop
Army of One
Coming for You