The Offspring is back with a new album. With the band not having released an album since 2021, I wonder does the Offspring still got it?
The album opener “This Is Not Utopia” gives me nostalgia to first discovering The Offspring and gives the classic Offspring feel. Going slower on title track “Let The Bad Times Roll” the band sets out with a strong album opening.
While I like the song “Army of One” it doesn’t break new ground and sounds like it could fit on any other Offspring album. The next song “Breaking These Bones” makes up for this in a way.
While “Coming For You” was released as a single almost two years ago, the band decided to still include the song on the album. While I like the song itself, it seems off in the context of the album.
The band also experiments with some new sounds on songs like “We Never Have Sex Anymore” and “In The Hall Of The Mountain King”
While it is nice to hear the band try out something new, it fills a little clutter and misses the energy they normally seem to have.
The band Brings back this energy on the tracks “The Opioid Diaries” and “Hassan Chop” but losses I with their new version of “Gone Away” and the album closer “Lullaby”
Lyrically the album is filled with social commentary, with the band taking on Big Pharma their influence on youth, the military industrial complex and the overall state of the world and specially the United States. In this regard the band stays consisted with their punk roots.
The Offspring shows they still got their ability for social observation and catchy punk songs, but this doesn’t always translate on the album. The songs seem to go up and down in quality and just over half of the songs really capture the talent of the band.
In my opinion, as much as I love The Offspring, They should have released an Ep instead of a full album.
Songs of “Let The Bad Times Roll” you should listen to
“This Is Not Utopia”
“Breaking These Bones”
“The Opioid Diaries”