Reviewing 'Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace'

For an awful long time, The Offspring has been one of my favorite bands. I will freely admit that a good deal of the music they have put since Smash, their breakout album, has been subpar by their standards - especially in recent times. Their last two efforts, Conspiracy Of One and Splinter, are notable for the prevalence of goofy, poppy songs ('Original Prankster', 'One Fine Day', 'Hit That', 'The Worst Hangover Ever', 'When You're In Prison') and songs that, while brandishing the signature Offspring sound, lacked energy and passion ('Dammit, I Changed Again', 'Conspiracy Of One', 'The Noose', 'Never Gonna Find Me'). My comments on Splinter are particularly ironic, given that I reviewed the album favorably in an article I wrote for my high school newspaper (yes, it's been a long time since The Offspring came out with new music). In hindsight, though, Splinter was a lackluster effort that probably deserved to be the nail in the band's coffin.

Nevertheless, The Offspring decided to put out at least one more effort entitled Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace, their first album in about 4.5 years. Even though it's to be released in the U.S. on June 17th, this website somehow has all of the songs available for streaming already. In short, there's a decent balance of typical Offspring fare - most of it in the first half of the album - along with a fair bit of experimentation on their part. The first single, 'Hammerhead', is a nice, hard-hitting song that departs from their previous lead singles ('Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)', 'Original Prankster', and 'Hit That'). Most of the experimentation works out - 'A Lot Like Me' is a slower song that incorporates piano, while 'You're Gonna Go Far, Kid' works in some synth beats. Unfortunately, the second half of the album is less memorable. It's probably the source of the accusations floating around that The Offspring ripped off Green Day, most notably 'Rise and Fall' - a song that, if I didn't know any better, is a dead ringer from the title track of American Idiot.

All in all, it's a nice body of work from a group that was gone for too long. The songs are more inspired, and the experimentation here works much better than it did on past albums (who remembers epic hits such as 'Spare Me The Details' and 'Denial, Revisited'?). For punk purists who live and die by The Offspring's first three albums, the album is not another Smash by any means. But it's easily the best effort by the band since Americana, and some might say (at least online) that it's their best major-label record - although Ixnay will always be the standard there, at least in my eyes.