Offspring

Ixnay on the Hombre

Amazed

Review Score:

(4/10)
Ixnay on the Hombre can be grouped along Ignition and Smash as The Offspring's absolute best. Ixnay finds band at their catchiest, with their most accessible and appealing songs in all the glory the tunes deserve. Naturally, different songs stand out to different people, but I'm sure you'll enjoy at least a few of them if you like catchy rock music in any way, shape, or form. The great thing about this record is that there's a hook in every song (unlike The Offspring's tone-deaf self-titled debut where there are nearly no solos, no "whoas", and no call-and-respond choruses). After stupidly giving this gem of a CD away with other albums I had grown out of and hated hearing (die, Green Day, die), I finally heard Ixnay again for the first time since 1998. It's such a refreshing alternative to the crap that other bands (and sadly, The Offspring) are playing these days. These four guys from sunny So-Cal have severely lost their touch since Ixnay, and it is truly the last great thing the band did. Not one song on any album after Ixnay is nearly as good as what's found here. No, The Offspring didn't sell out, they wore out. But no matter how much more The Offspring continue to sink their own career, we'll still have songs like these to remember their once-greatness by:

1.) "Gone Away" (right on par with "Dirty Magic" in terms of beauty)
2.) "Amazed"
3.) "All I Want"
4.) "Change the World" (the drum beat was taken from their own tribal-sounding song "The Blurb" from 1990 and used here!)

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