Offspring

Americana

Coming to a theme park amphitheater near you: The Offspring!

Review Score:

(2/10)
Although it is true that The Offspring have done no recent respectable albums on par with Ixnay and their older material, there still is one semi-decent song off Americana and another off Conspiracy of One. Don't expect me to even go near Splinter though; it's too painful to even comment on. The one song off Americana I thought was interesting was Pay the Man. Sure, the band once again ripped off their own music (the drumbeat used on the sitar version of Come Out & Play nine minutes a Smash is over is recycled again in Pay the Man), but it's still worth at least one listen. As it turns out, Pay the Man was written and intended to be included on Ixnay, but it never made the cut and ended up on Americana. The only song worth listening to off Conspiracy of One is Vultures, and again, it's all because he band ripped off their own previous material. It's basically a poorman's version of Dirty Magic. Another interesting tidbit is that most of the arrangement of Vultures was written during the band's Ignition era, but was deemed too similar to Dirty Magic. I think that the best way to describe The Offspring nowadays is to call them gimmicky, because that's what they certainly are. I'm sure they didn't plan to end up this way when they started the band (in the beginning they created songs about war, death, religion, child casualties), but I suppose that's what the hand of fate has dealt them. Give Dexter and the gang about five more years, and we'll probably see them playing gigs at Disney's Magic Mountain and other theme park amphitheaters. I know I'm stoked!

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