After Offspring released their atrocious 2003 Splinter album I had pretty much given up on the band and thought they had gone the way of the dinosaur.

I was therefore surprised (and dare I say excited) after I saw them headline this year’s Soundwave Festival where they played a number of nostalgic tracks from their Smash & Ixnay albums and a couple of new songs. After hearing them live I was even a bit hopeful (secretly withheld of course) that their upcoming release would regain the credibility they’d lost with earlier craptacular singles Pretty Fly and Original Prankster.

When I heard the promising title of Offspring’s latest album Rise & Fall, Rage & Grace, I was expecting that they’d follow in the footsteps of Greenday and would try reinvent themselves with a really epic & ambitious release. So have they succeeded at breaking everyones low expectations? Well yes (they’ve managed to regain some of their creed) & no (this isn’t American Idiot).

While the first track Half Truism, doesn’t particularly blow you away with originality it’s still a great opener that brings to mind sounds from their Conspiracy Of One release and is full of soaring guitar riffs & a pop rock chorus. After a number of listens this one has actually become one of my favorites from the album.

Trust In You is a reasonable follow up track with an old school drumstick count-in & melody that brings back fond memories of Ixnay while the use of a synthesized backdrop brings to mind something from the abysmal Splinter album. Fortunately Offspring restrains from overusing this digital aspect on the rest of the album and thankfully there’s no real stinkers to be found throughout its 44 min running time (who wants to hear Feelings?).

You’ve gonna Go Far, Kid is my favorite song off the album and has a strong pop sound with rolling drums & an addictive (if slightly empty) chorus about the hollow nature of the music industry ‘Dance, fucker dance, hit them right between the eyes’. I’m surprised that this track wasn’t chosen as their first single since it’s more catchy & upbeat than the one they finally settled for which is called Hammerhead. While this is the hardest hitting & darkest song on the album it’s repetitious rhyme makes it drag on a bit (4 minutes) & doesn’t really add anything new to the subject manner of school shootings.

A Lot Like Me is a slower and more likable number that is also likely to become a future single. While the vocals sound great, I’m slightly suspicious that they’d undergone a lot of mixing during post production as they sound too squeaky clean and have taken the edge off Dexter’s voice (a bit like James Hetfield’s vocals on St.Anger which comes as no surprise since both these album were produced by Bob Rock).

Kristy Are You Doing OK? is the first ballad track on the album & while Dexter’s tackled this style before (Gone Away), it’s hard not to draw comparisons to Greenday since the bridge sounds like it was ripped directly from Boulevard Of Broken Dreams. If you can forgive this little plagiarism, then this heartfelt track about a childhood friend who was raped may stick in your mind. Fix You also fits under the rock ballad bannar & ticks all the box’s for a commercial success (slow chorus, subtle build up, ‘woo,woo’s’. While I actually don’t mind this song I think it’s a ballsy move to include another slow paced number on the album, since it’s sugar coated sound could further alienate whatever fans they have left.

Elsewhere on the album there are a few too many weak tracks including, Takes Me Nowhere, Nothingtown, Stuff Is Messed Up and Rise & Fall which suffer from a lack of uniqueness & sound like bland leftovers from Americana or Conspiracy B-sides . While they’re not overly terrible their generic rock riffs place them in the filler category & make them pretty forgettable after a 3rd listen.

While the album finishes with the pop punks sounds of Rise & Fall (another Greenday knockoff song) a more appropriate closer would have been Let’s Hear It For Rock Bottom. With it’s ska like riff, upbeat rhythm & power pop chorus this song is the final memorable song on the album.

Final Verdict: With Rise, Fall, Rage & Grace, Dexter, Noodles & Co have slightly redeemed their previous failures and it’s actually the first album since Ixnay to not contain any dodgy tracks (finally an Offspring record I can admit that I liked without feeling dirty afterwards). While old school fans probably given up on Offspring a long time ago, I would still recommend they give their latest album a listen. While there’s a few too many generic tracks to make it a great album, quality wise it fits somewhere in between Americana & Conspiracy Of One. Also unless I’m mistaken & they pull an American Idiot of their arses I’m predicting that this will be Offspring’s last swan song, Considering I thought they were finished after Splinter they’ve at least chosen a better finale to go out on.

70 / 100 Pennies

Highlight Tracks (In order of ranking):

Your Going To Go Far Kid
Half-Truism
Let’s Hear It For Rock Bottom
A Lot Like Me
Kristy Are You Ok?
Fix You