The Offspring: All Albums Ranked
The Offspring are one of the most instantly recognisable, iconic punk rock bands of all time. We have undertaken the tricky task of ranking the albums in order, and picking out some key (and lesser-known) tracks. What you do you think? Check out the Spotify playlist and have your say in the comments below!
Less an album and more a cobbled-together compilation of odds and sods, ‘Happy Hour’ has some moments of brilliance but it is unlikely you will listen to the whole thing many times. 8 live songs, one excellent b-side, a re-recording of ‘Beheaded’ from the debut 1989 album, 5 covers and 4 extremely dodgy remixes - it has ‘contractual obligation’ all over it.
The covers are ‘Sin Sity’ (AC/DC), ‘Autonomy’ (Ramones), ‘I Got A Right’ (Iggy & The Stooges), ‘80 Times’ (TSOL) and ‘Hey Joe’ (Jimi Hendrix"). All are proficient and worth a listen, and ‘Autonomy’ is the clear stand-out. Completists will be frustrated that the covers of ‘Smash It Up’ (The Damned), ‘Total Immortal’ (AFI) and ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ (Ramones) aren’t included. A full-length compilation of all their covers would have been a much more fulfilling listen than ‘Happy Hour’ as it stands.
‘D.U.I.’, a b-side from the ‘Ixnay on the Hombre’ sessions, is an often-overlooked gem and is actually one of the finest songs The Offspring produced in the mid-90s. It was used on the soundtrack for teen horror flick ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ and the undeniable highlight of this patchy compilation.
Standout Tracks: ‘D.U.I.’, ‘Autonomy’
How ‘Rise and Fall…’ was so revered on its release in 2008 is beyond me, because it really isn’t very good at all. This record signalled the start of the ‘Bob Rock years’, and you can immediately hear the attempt to put a stadium rock sheen on The Offspring’s iconic punk rock sound, which succeeds only in blunting their usual sharpness.
The production is over-compressed and lifeless, with drums that have no bite to them and are buried under extra guitars and keyboards (‘Trust in You’ is a great example) - which is a shame because some of the songs have the potential to be all-time classics. Lead single ‘Hammerhead’ has a killer riff and memorable chorus, but it is overly long and is stretched out unnecessarily. ‘You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid’ has become a live favourite over the years and is undeniably catchy, though it pales in comparison to what Dexter Holland and Noodles wrote so effortlessly during the 4-album stretech from ‘Smash’ through to ‘Conspiracy of One’.
What is unforgiveable, though, is the uninspired second half of the record. ‘Nothingtown’ is ‘Want You Bad’ rewritten as a ploddy pop song, albeit with swing. ‘Fix You’ and ‘Kristy, Are You Doing OK?’ are tepid ballads. Worst of the lot is album closer ‘Rise and Fall’, which couldn’t be more obviously a copy of Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’ if it tried - the song structure, chord progressions and riff are practically a note-for-note theft.
And the cover art? It looks like it was produced in 5 minutes in Microsoft Publisher.
Standout Tracks: ‘Half-Truism’, ‘Hammerhead’. ‘Trust in You’
Decidedly rawer and less ‘pop’ than The Offspring became over the years, the debut self-titled record has a certain charm even if sounds somewhat dated now. With influences from early Bad Religion, The Dead Kennedys and The Damned, much of album is comprised of gritty social commentary that is a whole world away from ‘Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)’. Even the opening lyrics are brutal: ‘Jennifer lost the war today, they found her burned and raped. Through it all she must have wondered “What have I done”.
There is a dark sense of humour that pops up occasionally, such as the horror-inspired ‘Beheaded’, but the majority of ‘The Offspring’ is serious in tone. Musically, it sows the seeds of what they would develop further on 1992’s ‘Ignition’, especially in the highlights such as ‘Elders’ and the late-abum cuts ‘A Thousand Days’ and ‘I’ll Be Waiting’. It has been remastered and re-released a few times (sadly, losing the controversial but fun ‘Kill The President’ in the process), but no amount of remastering can change the fact that this is a raw, low-budget, primitive recording from when The Offspring were establishing their identity, having formed as a hardcore band ‘Manic Subsidal’ in 1984 and renamed themselves as The Offspring in 1986.
Standout Tracks: ‘Jennifer Lost The War’, ‘Elders’, ‘I’ll Be Waiting’
The bubble was bound to burst at some point. The 5 albums that preceded ‘Splinter’ (‘Ignition’, ‘Smash’, ‘Ixnay on the Hombre’, ‘Americana’ and ‘Conspiracy of One’) had hardly any skippable tracks, such was the consistently brilliant songwriting partnership of Noodles and Dexter Holland.
‘Splinter’ isn’t a bad record, but it is very patchy - and unfortunately this patchiness has plagued every album since, to a certain extent.
When it is good, it is extremely good. ‘The Noose’, ‘Long Way Home’, ‘Lightning Rod’, ‘Can’t Get My Head Around You’, ‘Never Gonna Find Me’ and ‘Race Against Myself’ are all superb, with fierce riffs that, on occasion, seem to have been influenced by Linkin Park who were arguably the biggest rock band on the planet at that point.
However, the bad tracks are absolute stinkers. ‘The Worst Hangover Ever’ and ‘Spare Me The Details’ are cringy, both lyrically and musically. Album closer ‘When You’re in Prison’ was probably funny in the studio, but should have stayed there. Lead single ‘Hit That’ has a keyboard riff that you will either find quirky and interesting or deeply, deeply annoying.
So, in reality, 6 songs are very strong, 2 (‘Hit That’ and ‘Da Hui’) are tolerable, and the rest are either skippable or actually offensive to the ears. Given that ‘Splinter’ is only 32 minutes long and took over 4 years to produce, fans justifiably felt short-changed by this one.
Standout Tracks: ‘Lightning Rod’, ‘Long Way Home’, ‘The Noose’
The 9-year gap between ‘Days Go By’ and ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’ meant that expectations were either sky-high or extremely low, depending on how spectical you were about 1) The Offspring’s penchant for patchy albums in the 2000s; 2) Whether Dexter can still sing; and 3) Whether Bob Rock would allow them to play the style of punk rock that they do best, rather than dressing it up in a stadium-rock sheen (see ‘Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace’).
When it finally arrived, 2+ years after the single ‘Coming For You’, ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’ was largely met with indifference. ‘Coming For You’ was a great track, but was released so long before the record that it had been largely forgotten by then. The album was promoted by the title track, a lacklustre and repetitive song in the vein of ‘Hit That’, followed by the unspectacular ‘Behind Your Walls’ and the frankly embarrassing ‘We Never Have Sex Any More’. And all the piano reworking of ‘Gone Away’ achieves to highlight how much it sounds like ‘Mad World’, and how Dexter’s high register works best when surrounded by loud guitars. So far, so “Meh”.
This introduction was a shame, because the record has some excellent moments. Opener ‘This Is Not Utopia’ is catchy as hell (even if it borrows heavily from Rancid’s ‘Roots Radicals’), ‘The Opioid Diaries’ is one of their best songs EVER, ‘Army Of One’ could have been on ‘Ixnay on the Hombre’, and the 1-minute cover of ‘In The Hall Of The Mountain King’ is great fun.
Overall, ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’ follows a similar trajectory to ‘Splinter’. There are moments of brilliance, but they are intermittent; and whichever record label exec decided to pick the singles needs to take a long hard think about what they have done.
Standout tracks: ‘The Opioid Diaries’, ‘This Is Not Utopia’, ‘Coming For You’
If you are reading this ranking in order from worst to best, you may have noticed a pattern forming. ‘Splinter’, ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’, ‘Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace’, and now ‘Days Go By’. The pattern is that, ever since the stellar ‘Conspiracy of One’, The Offspring have struggled to produce records that are cohesive, and consistently strong from start to finish.
‘Days Go By’ has, for the most part, aged fairly well. Much was made at the time of how similar the title track was to ‘Times Like These’ by Foo Fighters. Yes, they are extremely similar in places, but ‘Days Go By’ is still an undeniably good song, with poignant lyrics and a whimsical chorus.
The record starts and finishes very srongly. ‘The Future Is Now’ is an urgent call to arms, followed by the mid-paced ‘Secrets From The Underground’. ‘Turning Into You’ and ‘Hurting As One’ are both superb - serious in tone, with the latter echoing ‘Something To Believe In’ from 1994’s ‘Smash’. We are also treated to a brilliant re-recording of ‘Ignition’ highlight ‘Dirty Magic’; and the album ends with ‘Dividing By Zero’ and the excellently-titled ‘Slim Pickens Does The Right Thing And Rides The Bomb To Hell’ which are easily some of the greatest Offspring moments of all time.
What really lets ‘Days Go By’ down is the choice to include the truly horrific ‘Cruising California (Bumping In My Trunk)’ (arrrrggghhhhh my ears!), the embarrassing ‘OC Guns’ (which sounds like Fred Durst fronting The Bloodhound Gang after listening to mariachi music and bad hip hop) and the forgettable cheese-fest of ‘I Want A Secret Family With You’. Replace these 3, and you would have a Top 5 Offspring album. Unfortunately, with these audible turds killing the mid-album momentum, ‘Days Go By’ is too inconsistent.
Standout tracks: ‘Dividing By Zero / Slim Pickens Does The Right Thing And Rides The Bomb To Hell’, ‘Hurting As One’, ‘Turning Into You’
With 9 years between ‘Days Go By’ and ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’, the 3-year wait for ‘Supercharged’ was the blink of an eye in comparison. Production-wise, it shares a clear, punchy sound with ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’, albeit a bit lacking in bass, and the generally energetic sound is a good match for the album title, which was something of a statement of intent.
In keeping with the trend of all of the post-’Conspiracy’ albums, there are some weaker tracks (‘Ok, But This Is The Last Time’, ‘Get Some’ and ‘Looking Out For #1’), though the low points on this record are significantly better than the low points on ‘Splinter’, ‘Rise And Fall’, ‘Days Go By’ and ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’.
Lead single ‘Make It All Right’ is one of the most commercial pop songs that The Offspring have ever produced. It does improve with every listen, but it was a curious choice for the first single because surely by this point the band is playing more to its existing fans than trying to generate lots of new ones. The excellent ‘Hanging By A Thread’ or ‘The Fall Guy’ would have been a more inspired, inventive choice for lead single.
When it is good, ‘Supercharged’ is absolutely top-drawer. ‘Truth In Fiction’ may be a total Bad Religion rip-off, but it is stunning - and the other fast tracks such as ‘Light It Up’ and ‘Come To Brazil’ aren’t far behind. Thankfully there is nothing as naff as the piano remake of ‘Gone Away’ on the previous record, and it is only really the closer ‘You Can Get There From Here’ that is more ballad-like - and even this track has a decent sense of dynamics.
Perhaps the most fitting description for ‘Supercharged’ is “Much better than expected”. The quality of songwriting remains high, the energy levels match those from 30 years before, and Dexter’s high vocals are the best he has sounded in a decade.
Standout tracks: ‘Truth in Fiction’, ‘Light it Up’, ‘Hanging By A Thread’
Rumour has it that Noodles once gave a copy of ‘Ignition’ to Kurt Cobain following a Nirvana show in 1992. If Kurt did ever get round to listening to it, you could imagine that he would have approved, given that ‘Ignition’ has the kind of raw, unpolished yet accessible sound that Nirvana themselves pursued on their debut album ‘Bleach’.
‘Ignition’ was recorded on a shoestring budget, but by this point in their careers The Offspring had been playing together for over 7 years and were technically competent, with a knack for writing tunes that were not only fast and furious but were also memorable. Hence, ‘Kick Him When He’s Down’ has a stomping groove and killer chorus (which they developed further for 'Gotta Get Away’ on 1994’s ‘Smash'), ‘Burn It Up’ sounds as dangerous as its subject matter, and ‘We Are One’ is an anthemic call to arms. The chord progressions of ‘Take It Like A Man’ added a Middle Eastern flavour too, which has emerged at other times over the last few years (including hit single ‘Come Out And Play’) This melodic adventurousness is perhaps what differentiates The Offspring from the 3-chord simplicity of Green Day; and the gang vocals of ‘Get It Right’ were clearly an inspiration to AFI.
‘Ignition’ sounds very dated when compared to the studio polish of more recent albums, but it remains a fantastic DIY punk rock record.
Standout tracks: ‘Kick Him When He’s Down’, ‘Burn It Up’, ‘Forever and a Day’
AKA The one with ‘Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)’, ‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’, ‘She’s Got Issues’ and ‘Why Don’t You Get A Job’. ‘Americana’ is the equivalent of Feeder’s ‘Echo Park’, in that it contains some of their biggest singles and has an extremely polished, commercial sheen - and yet, beyond the singles, there are some deep cuts that are fascinating and surprisingly emotive.
Opening with the one-two of ‘Have You Ever’ and ‘Starting At The Sun’, there was a new-found clarity and sheen to The Offspring’s sound, which fitted well with the bright, colourful cartoon of the album art. And, like the album art, the songs were bright and upbeat on the surface - but there was a darkness (especially lyrically) that added a dimension of danger, picking at the scabs of modern-day America.
“I am a product of my environment, so don’t blame me. I just work here” (taken from the title track) - what a line!
‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’ highlights mental health and addiction issues in young people (sadly, even more relevant now than in 1998). ‘The End Of The Line’ is a rage against grief after losing someone. Monents like this are interspersed with the ‘novelty’ songs, which can make for a confusing yet varied listen. The only real issue is Dexter’s voice, which sometimes fits perfectly, but sometimes struggles with staying in tune (‘Have You Ever’) and hitting the high notes (‘She’s Got Issues’). An important album in The Offspring’s history, but not their best.
Standout tracks: ‘Staring At The Sun’, ‘No Brakes’, ‘Americana’
After the huge success of ‘Americana’, everyone knew The Offspring. For some, they were purveyors of novelty hits, and for long-time fans they were still known for the fast-paced, Bad Religion-meets-The Damned bursts of adrenaline and singalong choruses.
Striking while the iron was very hot, ‘Conspiracy of One’ had some of the same hallmarks of ‘Americana’ but was arguably more self-assured and less commercially-focused. Beyond the mis-step of ‘Original Prankster’, which tried too hard to echo ‘Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)’ (even through featuring the same actor in the video), ‘Conspiracy Of One’ is a fierce, fearless and powerful record that took everything that was good about ‘Americana’ and amplified it further.
If you like your Offspring songs to be fast and furious, you are spoilt with ‘Come Out Swinging’, ‘Dammit I Changed Again’, ‘All Along’, ‘One Fine Day’, ‘Conspiracy of One’ and the bonus track ‘Huck It’, all of which are superb. For mid-paced rock anthems, look no further than the excellent ‘Vultures’ and ‘Denial, Revisited’, both of which are essentially power ballads played through an Offspring filter. ‘Million Miles Away’ is another highlight too, covering similar ground to the previous record’s ‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’.
In fact, it is only really ‘Special Delivery’ that really lets the record down, with cheesy lyrics and a cringy sample of the ‘Hooga Chaka” intro from ‘Hooked On A Feeling’. Remove this track, and ‘Original Prankster’, and ‘Conspiracy of One’ is close to pop punk perfection.
Standout Tracks: ‘One Fine Day’, ‘Conspiracy of One’, ‘Come Out Swinging’
“Ahhhhh. It’s time to relax, and you know what that means”.
Few albums are genuinely deserving of being called a ‘classic’ - and ‘Smash’ is one of these rare view. From the iconic cover art to the distinctive sound; from the ‘La La La’s in the opening of ‘Self Esteem’ to the “You gotta keep ‘em separated” of ‘Come Out And Play'; from the random vocal interludes to the did-they-really-sing-that “You stupid dogsh*t goddamn motherf**ker” in ‘Bad Habit’ - ‘Smash’ has it all.
This was the kind of record you would have had on tape in 1994 and played so much that the tape got chewed up. Between this and Green Day’s ‘Dookie’, 1994 was one hell of a year for punk rock that had enough pop to be catchy but enough bite to be cool.
This was the album that made The Offspring international megastars. To date it has sold over 11 MILLION copies - a significant step up from the 50,000 sales of previous album ‘Ignition’. It helped to establish Epitaph recrods as a legitimate record label (leading to Brett Gurewitz leaving Bad Religion to lead the label full-time), and appealed to old-school punk fans, lovers of the 1994 pop punk explosion, and everyone looking to fill the void left following the untimely departure of Kurt Cobain that brought Nirvana to an impromptu end.
Standout tracks: ‘Gotta Get Away’, ‘Self Esteem’, ‘Bad Habit’
‘Smash’ is the one that gets all the focus, but in our opinion ‘Ixnay on the Hombre’ is, on balance, the best Offspring album. The sound is perfect - more polished than ‘Ignition’ and ‘Smash’ but not as clean as the commercially-focused ‘Americana’; and the record is really well-balanced, with plenty of the fast-paced Offspring sound but also a good amount of variety.
Lead single ‘All I Want’ is the opening song on our Spotify playlist for very good reason. It is lean, short, sharp and laden with massive hooks, right from the opening “Ya ya ya ya ya”. Similarly-paced, we have the cautionary tale of ‘Way Down The Line’, massive opener ‘Meaning Of Life’ and ascerbic ‘Cool to Hate’.
Outside of the faster tracks, The Offspring really expanded their repertoire on ‘Ixnay on the Hombre’. ‘I Choose’ and ‘Me and My Old Lady’ are funky and danceable. ‘Don’t Pick It Up’ is this album’s novelty song, and is genuinely fun without becoming cringey like the more recent attempts at jokes (‘When You’re In Prison’, ‘Spare Me The Details’, Cruising California’ etc).
The best moments on ‘Ixnay on the Hombre’ are arguably the slower tracks, namely the gut-wrenchingly emotional ‘Gone Away’ (the ideal mix of beautiful songwriting and muscular riffs) and the impressive ‘Amazed’ which sounds like the greatest song Bush never wrote.
You won’t find as many singles here. ‘Come Out And Play’, ‘Self Esteem', ‘Pretty Fly’, ‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’, ‘You’re Gonna Go Far Kid’ etc - these may be the best individual songs. But as an album, from top to bottom, ‘Ixnay on the Hombre’ is an often-overlooked masterpiece.
Standout tracks: ‘All I Want’, ‘Mota’, ‘Amazed’
