The Angry Era (The Offspring - Offspring)

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Product:	The Offspring - Offspring
Date:	21/06/01 (149 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cool songs, A chance to hear the band at an early point, Better than a lot of their later songs

Disadvantages: Too short, Bad sound quality (it was recorded first in 1989)

The Offspring formed in 1984, and are my favourite band ever. I've got all their albums, loads of singles, the video, clothes... but their modern style is much different and more clean-cut than the rebellious, anti-government, anti-police, anti-almost everything style they began with.

The band formed in 1984 in Orange County, LA (with some different members than today), but by 1989 (the time that they recorded this album for the first time on the Nemesis Records label) the band was as it is now: Bryan "Dexter" Holland (vocals- he didn't play guitar on the albums in them days), Kevin "Noodles" Wasserman (guitar), Greg "Greg K" Kriesel (Bass) and Ron Welty on drums. The album took a while to sell, and by the time the band hit it big time in 1994 (with their fantastic album "Smash") Dexter and Greg decided to re-release this first album on CD, to allow fans to hear their music without having to buy expensive, poor quality bootleg vinyl.

Compared to their modern music the songs on the first album are very gritty, and sometimes not played completely to perfection, with the occasional unnecessary guitar solo or instrumental piece (these small factors were filtered out when they joined Epitaph in 1992 for their second album, but don't sound that bad here). Basically, the Offspring (or "Manic Subsidal" as they were originally known) realised that all punk bands of the eighties were singing about war, the government, rape, the police and insanity, so their first two albums (especially this album with songs like "Tehran", "Jennifer Lost the War" and the infamous "Kill the President") are quite controversial in some respects. But it's a damn fine album, if not their best. (I actually prefer it to the second album, "Ignition.")

The album starts with "Jennifer Lost the War", a song about the rape of young children in the modern world. It
begins with a guitar solo, and is pretty damn good (among the best on the album). The drumming is prominent, and the guitarring does get up to a lot of rather unneccessary mucking about, but the lyrics are certainly the most prominent factor of the song, with their poweful meanings written by Dexter, the valedictorian genius vocalist (his intellect is the reason for his nickname "Dexter"). ("I guess we're all just soldiers- she was only six years old. Left to die by strangers, her family waits.")

"Elders" begins strongly and without time to pause and reflect upon the last song. It's another cool song, and has a good chorus. The lyrics are about how the world is always said to be great and without flaw, and how you realise the truth (and the fact that your parents have lied to you) when you grow up and see the true evils apparent all around you. ("When we were younger there always seemed like some, some perfect mold that we're supposed to be. But now we're growing up and I see it's just not that way, now I feel like someone's lied to me.")

The third track, "Out on Patrol", deals with the issue of war, and of how innocent, young people are killed "for their country" before they have a chance to experience life. It begins with an acousticcy-sounding riff before exploding into action, and is a pretty good song- Dexter's voice is at its most angry in this song, among others. ("Look at you soldier boy now with that big gun in your little hand.")

One of my favourites on the album, "Crossroads" has a pretty slow start before it gets going, and has great vocals and guitar work. The song is about losing a love, and being led away, trying to find your way back. ("Find that path alone, crossroads lead me away, but that's not what worries me, I just want to know what's home.")

One of the worst on the album is "Demo
ns" (subtitled "A Mexican Fiesta") which is basically Dexter singing maniacally about sacrificing a soul to the Devil. It's the only song by the band that seems to take such issues seriously, but I don't think it's that good. The vocals are sang well, in a different style, but I don't think much of the tune compared to the band's other albums, but it is quite long- some songs on this album come a bit short. ("You are my offering, your soul transcends the centuries of pain. Your misery in life is your ecstasy in death.")

The most well-known song off the album is "Beheaded", the story of an insane person who is obsessed with decapitation. He has cut the heads off his mum, dad, girlfriend, and still wants more. It's purely for comedy, and contains a laughable display of complesx words from the pen of Dexter and co-writer James Lilja (one of Dexter's brainy kin, possibly?) The song was adapted into "Beheaded 1999", a new recording used for the 1999 comedy/horror teen film "Idle Hands", in which Dexter is killed after performing this song and another. The tune's great, but the afore-mentioned lyrics are what make this the album's finest offering. ("Watch my girlfriend come to the door, chop off her head, she falls to the floor. Watchin' my baby's jugular flow really makes my motor go.") The song goes slow for one point that's not as good but does add a bit of variation, before returning for a final farewell chorus. (Like you're not going to listen to it again as soon as the album's finished).

Track seven, "Tehran", takes a while to get started (with fifteen minus seconds after "Beheaded") but it turns out to be one of the best, if not the best, songs on the album. (It's up there with the last song). Another song about war, this one seemed to be somewhat prophetic as the gulf war broke out the following year. As
it did, the Offspring decided to be political again (as if this album wasn't enough?) and released an underground single called "Baghdad" (which you can get off napster and is basically another recording of this song, with "In Baghdad" replacing "In Tehran" and "We will win in Baghdad" replacing "We will win in Iran." The song has a great drum beat and great lyrics and vocals, as well as a very original guitar tune that reminds me of their later single "Come Out and Play." ("The President said let it ride, Islam be damned, make your last stand in Tehran.")

"A Thousand Days" seems like a very random song, but I have learned to love it after a few listens. It's about a couple who have hurt one another, but who still keep reaching out for one another. ("Don't ask me for a reason, I can't explain why we hurt one another again and again. As I lie bleeding here I still, I still reach for you.") I love the chorus, and the riff's pretty cool as well. It's also a nicely fast song, but nothing original here really.

"Black Ball" was released, along with the main song "I'll Be Waiting", as the Offspring's first underground single. All copies were hand-glued by the band, and they were eventually all flogged off- now incredibly rare and worth loads of money! The song has a pretty cool tune, and is the fastest song on the album. The song's got quite confusing lyrics, but appears to be on about how technology is taking over modern life. ("Blackball- the new disease, Blackball- the new disease, Blackball- for a better life in this high-tech dog-eat-dog existence.") Please correct me by comment if you've deciphered the lyrics' meaning.

"I'll Be waiting" is another of my favourites off the album, but starts out sounding incredibly dodgy with a very embarrassingly-eighties riff, befo
re going quiet and bursting into life. The song is amazing, possibly my favourite on the album (along with "Beheaded" and "Tehran"), and is about how people you consider to be your friends can betray you when the going gets tough. ("Once I had a friend that I could count on, so I thought, well so it seemed. But times of need are not enough to prove your friendship to me now.") There is a break in the song near to the end with a short instrumental session with prominent drumming before the song comes back. As I said with "Black Ball", this song was released as a rare vinyl single that was originally worth virtually bugger all but has now escalated invalue pretty far (I want one anyway).

The final track on the relatively short album begins after a drum beat which leads into a bass solo and then cool guitar riff, and is the controversial "Kill the President." ("in a world without leaders, who'd start all th wars?") A cool song, it earned the Offspring a position on an American current affairs programme, in which the TV presenter accused the band of spreading evil rumours, proceeding to stamp and smash up a copy of their vinyl album. In defiance (and possibly for the comedy of it), regular Mr. Comedy Noodles joined in and danced the LP to pieces. Ah, well done people. This song has a cool riff, and is overlayed near the end by parting words from Dexter about the country's true enemies. A great end to a very overlooked, excellent album that just comes in a little too short (eleven tracks and about thirty one minutes).

Here are some closing words from Dexter Holland, as spoken in "Kill the President":

"America, all your enemies come from within. But you lash out so it is seen like some frightened child in an angry world or the fall of Rome. Your demise comes from your own hands."

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