Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace

All music is heavily shaped by the time and place in which it's created. "Appetite for Destruction" is a case in point. The first and best Guns n Roses album, it still sounds raw and honest. The "Use Your Illusion" albums? Not so much. The band were rich and famous by the early nineties, and the passion that fueled their debut was gone. Even if they wanted to create Appetite 2.0 they wouldn't have been able.

The Offspring are another example. In 1994 they released "Smash", their only album I've ever liked. Despite the fact that I'm not a huge fan of punk music, I'd rank it in my all-time top 10 albums. Lots of other people agreed, according to Wikipedia it's since sold 14 million copies worldwide. There's not really a bad song on the CD, and in parts, it's actually quite funny. I'm generally not a big fan of humour in music, but the comedy here is subtle, and based on everyday experiences that are easy to relate to. Like frustration bordering on road rage (Bad Habit), or manipulative girlfriends (Self Esteem).



On successive releases the band tried to mine the comedy vein further, but ended up with broader songs like (Pretty Fly) for a White Guy and Original Prankster. Which were popular in their time, but not widely loved anymore.

Even though Smash is still in reasonably high rotation on my ipod, I hadn't listened to a new Offspring album in years. I read a review of their new one "Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace" on the net a few weeks ago though, and was pulled in by promises of a harder sound than previous albums.

I downloaded it, and while it wasn't the hardcore punk album I'd heard it described as, it was an improvement on anything I'd heard from them since the mid-nineties. There's a few too many slow songs (I don't think anyone wants to hear an Offspring ballad) but the fast stuff is really good. It's as melodic as anything on Smash, but they don't get caught up in the novelty side of things.

Here's one of my favourites from the new disc, You're Gonna Go Far, Kid . . .