The Offspring

The Offspring: Days Go ByDays Go By (2012)
Sony Music Entertainment

Reviewer Rating: 3.5

User Rating:

Contributed by: ivanoivano
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Published on June 26th 2012So here come the Offspring once again, with their ninth studio album. How much have they changed since the previous effort? How much (more) have they "sold out?" How many good, mediocre and terrible songs do we have now? OK, OK, one question at a time please. Nothing much has changed, anyway. Su.

So here come the Offspring once again, with their ninth studio album. How much have they changed since the previous effort? How much (more) have they "sold out?" How many good, mediocre and terrible songs do we have now? OK, OK, one question at a time please.

Nothing much has changed, anyway. Sure, "Cruising California" is probably their worst song ever ("OC Guns" being possibly the second), but we know they have always chosen bad songs as singles, ever since "Come Out and Play" (which I enjoy, but which certainly isn't the best one on Smash). Besides those two "songs," the rest is more or less their typical post-Ixnay melodycore.

First track "The Future is Now" sets things clear: epic-melancolic guitar intro, first verse with bass and drums, second verse with palm muted guitar, super catchy chorus with the right dose of who-ooas. Sounds familiar? Also, nice and somewhat typical dark lyrics with a Dead Kennedys quote. "Secrets From the Underground" follows the same pattern, while the title track has a clear Foo Fighters influence. "Turning Into You" sounds a lot like "Ready to Fall" by Rise Against, with its fast and light verse and mid-tempo and heavy chorus. "Hurting as One" is the first of the two fast songs of the record, and the who-ooas remind me a lot of "Something to Believe In," which certainly isn't a bad feeling. "All I Have Left is You" is the new "Fix You" (two of the only three Offspring songs, according to Google and myself, which feature the word "intertwined").

The new version of "Dirty Magic" is just a little overproduced maybe (which made me smile when I thought of the "it's oversimplified" part), but still a good rendition. I like the pounding drums and the slight change in the flow of the lyrics in the chorus. And speaking of drums, while he's not Brooks Wackerman, Pete Parada does a good job on the album, and revives the band's sound a little.

"I Wanna Secret Family" and album ender "Slim Pickens Does the Right Thing and Rides the Bomb to Hell" are solid and punchy, while "Dividing by Zero," super-fast and melodic, might be my favorite. And, yes, it does sound a little like "Take It Like a Man." Couldn't ask for much more from the 2012 version of this band.

All in all a solid effort I'd say, despite the lack of fast songs. Again, it's 2012, these guys are old and always on the brink of completely screwing things up, could we really expect much more?

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

ellissmith8 (July 28, 2012)

Quite enjoyed it, surely people realise that Cruisin' California is just taking the piss out of pop music? Still, I think it was a bad choice to have it as a single... The single Days Go By is horrible. When I heard it I thought this album would be terrible but they pulled it back. I think OC Guns is catchy!

punkOrama64 (July 19, 2012)

I really enjoyed this album, is better than rise an fall and fall in all aspects and had and old offspring tune from early records.

weriselikelions (July 3, 2012)

ever since dexter got scalped in 'idle hands' the offspring can do no wrong!

TheSkeletonDance (July 3, 2012)

For people wondering why Josh still played drums on this album, Dexter answered this in a video Q&A. It's because Pete lives in another state and The Offspring would have to fly him out just to record, so there were times when The Offspring were ready to go, but they didn't want to wait for Pete to arrive by plane so they got Josh Freese, who was local, to fill in.

About the review, fair review, although I like OC Guns. CC is terribly, yes, but I enjoy OC Guns musically, despite the somewhat silly lyrics.

TheSkeletonDance (July 3, 2012)

jofx1992 (June 30, 2012)

the band that got me into punk and in a way changed my view on music. imo people are way to cynical about these guys and other bands but not only that, critical of all the wrong things.
i like the album. some songs are pretty damn good, others are ok, some scared me as to how much they were ripoffs of other tunes (turning into you IS ready to fall by rise against.), and some were flat out horrible.
cruisin california im pretty damn sure is a joke and a satirizing modern pop music so i didnt react so harshly towards it as much as most shmucks that reviewed it.

mike_oxbig (June 28, 2012)

Oddly enough I like Cruisin' California and OC Guns more than any of the other songs on this album. Being a fan since Ignition there have been many albums with many disappointing singles that did nothing more than piss me off... Pretty Fly For a White Guy and so forth.... Now, I think it is the same old recycled boring way-less-edgy-than Ignition, Smash and even Ixnay and Americana 'punk songs' that truly annoy me the most. It seems to me like Offspring just add the customary 'punk songs' to try and retain their old school fans. It's pretty easy to hear they put a lot more time, energy and passion into their non-punk songs. Next album should just leave out the punk songs and do whatever it is they feel like. I'll assume most of their original fans like myself have moved onto punker pastures when looking for fast, melodic, high energy music anyways.

puddboy (June 28, 2012)

I dig this album, but then again I like most of their stuff. I don't know what people were expecting, you pretty much know what you're getting with each Offspring album. I think some people just get off trashing bands on message boards that they don't like. Now, if you are a big Offspring fan and don't care for this album, that's different...

SeriouslyAwesomeDude (June 27, 2012)

I'll always have a soft spot for Offspring, which means I'll probably pick up any pile of garbage they happen to put out... That said, I actually really liked this album. Not as fast as I'd hoped it would be, but there's some catchy shit on here. "I Wanna Secret Family With You" is my new summer jam!

anarchypants (June 26, 2012)

This and Splinter are the best post Smash albums

davebrave4 (June 26, 2012)

Uh...melodycore? I've heard ppl reference some pretty ridiculous genre names, but that might take the cake.

And in response to the guy below me, why wouldn't Josh Freese play drums? He's the best drummer in punk rock; I wish he played drums on everything.

Thumbs (June 26, 2012)

Oh, and why, with a permanent drummer for a few years now, does Josh Freese still play drums on 8 of these songs???

Mrcips (June 26, 2012)

Not bad it's worth the money I spent!

punkedb4ashton (June 26, 2012)

It quotes a Dead Kennedys song without featuring an irritating Jello Biafra cameo? Which one of those guys will sue first?

In future news, no punk band will ever quote an Offspring song...

woodprop (June 26, 2012)

Even worse than the last three albums.

Jeevz (June 26, 2012)

So this piece of crap gets 31/2 stars and the new Pennywise gets 1 star? I don't know what to say, I'm at a loss of words. You've failed me once again Punknews!

SoldOut (June 26, 2012)

This Album Is Good. Period

Thumbs (June 26, 2012)

Half is pretty kick-ass, half is goddamn awful.

FelixT (June 26, 2012)

Yeah, I'm surprised how much I like it. The shitty songs have been mentioned already. But take them out and you have an awesome record.

jacknife737 (June 26, 2012)

Best record they've written since Americana.

Starts off strong: middle section ranges from "meh" to awful (OC Guns would be a much better instrumental track), but it manages to pull itself together again by the end.

Divided By Zero and Slim Pickens are two of the best songs they've written in like 15 years; the latter also contains the the best lyrics Holland has ever penned.

angryderek (June 26, 2012)

CRAAAAP!!! i like how DICKster Holland tries to play it coy and be all "when we wrote that shitty song, were we trying to be ironic, or was it serious?" give me a break, they want to write Pretty Fly for a White Guy again and get "famous"...they want rock radio adds......this band is a joke, they're Simple Plan, Sum41, all that shit rolled into one shitty voiced, poorly executed lousy band...drink a dick

Ravnos (June 26, 2012)

I've said it elsewhere but there's a good (not great) EP on this album. About 6 good songs, 5 throwaways, and one unnecessary remake of a classic song. The new version of Dirty Magic isn't awful, but it is overproduced and that detracts from it a fair bit, the original is still the better version. And Cruisin California and OC Guns both manage to make songs like Why Don't You Get A Job and Original Pranksta look like masterpieces. I know the old Offspring is gone forever, but I keep hoping these guys will put out an American Idiot and they never even come close.

bouncingcoles (June 26, 2012)

I think this album is solid. Other than cruising california every song is either good or fantastic. Too many people on this site are music snobs.

HappyDerek (June 26, 2012)

I'm not a fan of this album, but that's OK because not everybody has the same taste in music.

agnosticbundt (June 26, 2012)

"Cruisin california" is about a million times worse when you realize that these guys are like forty.

ivano (June 26, 2012)

devidence: just checked, you're right. Is Freese who drums on almost all the tracks. Well, a pretty good drummer anyways.

TheDoodlyMan (June 26, 2012)

This alum is pretty good. Got some Ignition sounding tracks mixed in with some Ixnay.

Devidence (June 26, 2012)

*Whoops, Josh Freese. Got my brothers mixed up, I'll blame Green Day.

Devidence (June 26, 2012)

Jason Freese returned for some (most?) of the percussion duty here, Pete only played on a handful. Unfortunately I would guess the impressive parts are still Jason. It's the best Offspring record since Conspiracy, and I think this review does a good job of saying that. If you didn't jump ship with Pretty Fly for a White Guy and Original Prankster, are you really pissed now? There's some good shit here.

ivano (June 26, 2012)

Actually I gotta say, after having listened to this about 50 times in one week, I think it's even better than what I wrote in the review. Secret Family and Slim Pickens are really solid funny catchy pop-punk songs.

Bababooey (June 26, 2012)

Horrendous. Just absolutely horrendous. The only reason I bought the two fast paced tracks on iTunes is purely because of nostalgia. The mixing is awful, it's compressed to hell and way too much autotune in every single song. Whether you like Conspiracy of One or not, at least that album had some passion and a great sound. This is just lazy "we owe our record label another album" shit.

kylewagoner (June 26, 2012)

I think OC Guns isn't horrid. It reminds me of something you'd find on Ixnay. That super slow one with the piano I think it's pretty lame, though.

Leonardo (June 26, 2012)

Could be a very good 8 song EP (even if without o truly memorable song), but they decided to include a unecessary version of the great 'Dirty Magic', the obligatory but boring ballad, and the 2 worst Offspring songs ever. In the end it's realy not a bad album, but it's sad to realise that 4 years after their previous work, this was the best they could come up with.

BluthCo (June 26, 2012)

By my count, the album has 6 good punk songs, 4 decent rock songs, 2 terrible joke songs gone awry, and the Dirt Magic rerecording, which isn't bad but invited unfavorable comparisons to the band's better days.

seth_uber_alles (June 26, 2012)

Time has not been good to these guys. Smash isn't even sounding that good anymore in my opinion. Seriously stack it up against any of the big punk albums of the time (Dookie, Drublic, Wolves, Stranger than Fiction...) and it's crap compared to every one.

ReelBigMike (June 26, 2012)

"'Cruising California' is probably their worst song ever (“OC Guns” being possibly the second)"

Totally agree. Besides those two songs though, this is actually a solid album in my opinion (with "The Future is Now" being the standout track for me). Definitely better than Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace.

MN_DrNick (June 26, 2012)

Nooooooooo......nooooooooo

The first half is just medium paced punk followed by a second half of really stupid shit.