The Offspring: Americana : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Though they were raised in the cradle of Orange County, California, punk, the Offspring are more about songs than attitude. This quartet's sound has as much to do with the crazed anything-goes novelty of Nuggets-era garage rock from the Sixties as it does with the loud-fast skateboard anthems of the last decade. Half of Americana, the band's fifth album, salutes mid-Eighties hardcore, and it's a record that any TSOL fan has already heard a million times: pogopony polka beats; bass lines that fly on a carpet of eighth notes; zooming, solo-free guitar riffs; and lots of "whoah-ohhh!" sing-along parts. Frontman Dexter Holland rants on about "fragile lives, shattered dreams" on "The Kids Aren't Alright" and, on another track, offers this SoCal extreme-sports manifesto: "Faster now, you know I got no brakes." There's no sense of risk, though – even the hyperventilating remake of Morris Albert's pathetic "Feelings" is predictably snide.

But the other half of Americana flips purists the bird. The Offspring toss processed percussion and wordless surfballad harmonies into their bag of hooks on "She's Got Issues," while "Pay the Man" is a three-part, eight-minute opus with a pronounced Middle Eastern vibe. With steel drum and sleigh bells, "Why Don't You Get a Job?" echoes the insidious singsongy charm of both the Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" and Simon and Garfunkel's "Cecilia." And "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" is the goofball, Latin-loco-rock successor to the band's catchy-as-hell 1994 single "Come Out and Play"; the new track is even reprised as a mariachi instrumental. This may not be fuel for the punk lifers in the mosh pit, but those who value pop for its gleeful window-smashing novelty will find something to crank up.

GREG KOT

(Posted: Nov 17, 1998)

News and Reviews

How to Play This Album

Click the play button.
Register or enter your username and password.
Let the music play!

No commitment.
It's FREE.

Track List

Play All

Your Turn

Give us your review of Americana

Review 1 of 1

3of 5 Stars

NOW TEN TO TWENTY YEARS FROM NOW OFFSPRING WILL COME OUT WITH A GREATEST HITS ALBUM.PEOPLE SADLY WILL BUY IT.SOMETHING PEOPLE MUST UNDERSTAND AND RESPECT ABOUT OFFSPRING WAS IT WAS THERE AND GONE AND STILL GOING WITH ITS SOME WHAT FAILURE RELEASES.AMERICANA IS OFFSPRINGS GREATEST HITS ALBUM IT HAS EVERYTHING THE BAND IS WIDELY KNOWN FOR.SO IN 10 OR TWENTY YEARS JUST LAUGH LIKE ME AS I FINISH MY JOB AND READ THE NEWSPAPER AND SEE IN THE MUSIC SECTION OFFSPRINGS GREATEST HITS I WILL LAUGH AND LAUGH TEN LAUGH ABOUT OTHER BANDS GREATEST HITS ALBUMS THAT ARE BASICALLY FROM ONE CD THAT IN TWENTY YEARS FROM NOW YOU COULD GET FIVE DOLLARS

Nov 5, 2006 16:56:15

Previous Next