The Offspring - Days Go By Review

Like Britpop and so many other musical crazes, the pop-punk boom of the 1990s was a surprisingly diverse movement. Green Day goofed around for the cameras but their lyrics spoke of suburban alienation and angst, Bad Religion never went into the studio without a thesaurus to hand, and Rancid reached out to the British punk template for inspiration.

The Offspring, meanwhile, were cut from a more conventional cloth; always appearing more comfortable with mainstream success than their peers. And where more resourceful bands have either pursued a smaller, faithful audience, or reinvented themselves in their quest for global domination, Days Go By is the sound of a band who either daren't risk or simply cannot conceive of a plan B....full text If you didn’t guess by the title, the Offspring are in a state of reflection with their ninth album, ‘Days Go By.’

Despite the theme, the album still keeps the immediacy that fans have come to reflect in the band’s sound. While audiences have been a little mixed on the poppy second single, ‘Cruising California (Bumpin’ in My Trunk),’ it should be noted that the song is more of an exception than the standard on the ‘Days Go By’ disc.

The first half of the disc is especially straight out of the Offspring playbook, with opening track ‘The Future Is Now’ and ‘Hurting as One’ serving as full-throttle rockers with the standard punk beat. ‘Secrets From the Underground’ and ‘Turning Into You’ have more driving beats, with the latter offering several opportunities for the audiences to shout “Hey” within the body of the song....full text Songs like Hurting as one, Dividing By Zero and Slim Pickens Does the Right Thing And Rides The Bomb To Hell could have been great songs if they worked harder on them. They feel like they ran out of idea in the process of making them. The lyrics aren't really good especially after you hear Dirty Magic, a masterpiece from their 1991 Ignition.

The Offspring have changed... a lot! They are now Mainstream Rock kinda like their song You're Gonna Go Far, Kid! This album will be a disappointment to the hardcore Offspring fans although the remake of Dirty Magic stands as a message that they're still what they were eleven years ago. They might have hit a low with this LP but there are some songs that are fun....full text Punk’s changed. Originally, it was the result of fixing a broken guitar amp with modelling glue in a poorly ventilated garage. By the ’90s, when the Offspring exploded, it was the sound of a skateboard landing a kickflip in a suburban parking lot. If Days Go By is any indication, the genre has matured into sun-bleached rock incorporating a variety of influences underpinned by generalized angst. The result here is a radio-friendly album that feels honest despite its meanderings. "Hurting as One" and "The Future Is Now" deliver vintage Offspring punchiness, while "All I Have Left Is You" is an earnest ballad. Some tangents don’t work –- "Cruising California (Bumpin’ in My Trunk)" sounds like singer Dexter Holland trying to hit on Ke$ha -- but as a whole, the album feels cohesive in spirit, if not in style.
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