Song by song: This is not Utopia: Fast, modern, typical opener, title seems to be kind of the concept for the record (critique of american society) Let the bad times roll: has a ska vibe, contrast between happy sounds with critical lyrics, reminds him of REM, he likes that the song is different from the rest of the records (I guess this is good news for a lot of you) Behind the walls: modern punk, kind of thoughtful and dark, reminds him of Rise Against, great song Army of One: His favorite, great guitar, fast, amazing chorus Coming for you / breaking these bones: sound like oldschool offspring, not as modern as the first four tracks We never have sex anymore: the funny song they usually have on their records, kinda ska with brass instruments Hall of the mountain king: the classical song, 1 minute long and grows faster with time, maybe a critique of elitist music? He‘s not sure why this is on there. Opiod diaries: His least favorite on the record, kind of a mix between old and new Offspring Hassan Chop: the fastest track, starts hardcore style and continues oldschool offspring, cool song Gone away requiem version: His favorite offspring song of all times, slow version with piano and strings, he absolutely loves it Lullaby: Outro, like a let the bad times roll reprise, doesn‘t count as a song
I’m pretty sure it’s the rip of the leak, because the singles sound notably poorer than the officially released versions.
I like this way more than I was expecting although it tapers off towards the end. "This is Not Utopia" and "Behind These Walls" are both crackers, it's nice to finally hear the studio version of "The Opioid Diaries", and I rather like "Army of One" as well. On the other hand, "Breaking These Bones" is disappointingly similar to "Secrets From the Underground", I'm not hot on the piano version of "Gone Away", and "Lullaby" is completely redundant. Rather like Days Go By, probably half a good album mixed with some filler, though at least there is nothing as ear-scrapingly terrible as OC Guns. Not sure how much they re-recorded but some of the lyrics in Coming For You have been changed slightly. Most notably, the second "they'll be coming for you" in the chorus is now "the wolfpack's tearing at you". Wouldn't call it a bad change but I would call it a pointless one.
Changed the "In the backroom, nothing to do" line in the first verse to "In the backroom, sniffing glue" too. In the second part of the chorus they actually changed "Lights out, permanent snooze" to "the wolfpack's tearing at you". "They'll be coming for you" is still in there.
Not sure how hard we're allowed to nudge but let's just say the mods on the Offspring subreddit allowed the post to stay up as long as it wasn't discussed
After a few listens, gotta say I like this one a lot mroe than the past two records. Could have done without the two short ones, and I think Gone Away in this version loses a lot of the emotional impact the original had. The rest of the songs are great though, especially This is not Utopia, Army of One and Hassan Chop. Army of One gives me some old school Adolescents vibes. Can't wait for the vinyl to arrive.
This record is as good as we can expect from an Offspring album in 2021. I feel like I can hear Dexter Holland straining his voice even with all this production. This is a good tool to keep them on the European festival circuit. I feel like they've all but disappeared from the North America scene. Like, have the picked up any new fans in the past 10 years? On another note, I feel like a triple thread of Rise Against/Offspring/AFI could be a good package tour to play half-full amphitheaters.
Haven't heard it, was hoping there was none lol. The joke songs actively lose points for all of their albums post-Ixnay for me (besides Rise and Fall obviously which doesn't have one)
Which is a bummer, because Splinter has like 5 great songs on it, but I can understand why someone would not go back to it.
My previous comment was a little strong...I occasionally revisit Splinter because, you're right, there are some great songs on it. I was always a little disappointed by that album having that really dumb/embarrassing Prison song, and how that took up one track on an already short album.