Editorial Reviews
Americana [ECD]
Music Review:
Music Review
Door to the Future: The Lightshow Tapes, Vol. 1 [Live]
Martin: Monologes No1-6; Chants de Noël
Kallen Esperian: American Treasure
Music: Electrical Lovers Presents: Chillout Lovers [Import]
It's Going Down [CD-single] [Import]
Liszt: Sonnenhymnus / Franziskus-Legenden (Cantico del Sol/St. Francis Legends)
Amazon.com
Maybe hanging out with Jello Biafra put the fun-loving spring in Offspring's step. Or perhaps it was just the royalty checks, hot babes, and fast cars. Whatever the case, the band's fourth record, Americana, is its most lively offering to date, replacing angst and rage with energy and sarcasm. The novelty single "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" matches infectious riffing and shout-along vocals with fly-girl chants of "Give it to me, baby" and lyrics about wannabe scenesters; and a storming punk-rock version of Morris Albert's "Feelings" sees the band hitting a new level of, er, (in)sensitivity. Elsewhere, the humor is slightly more subtle; "She's Got Issues" cops a new-wave guitar line from the Cars songbook, "The Kids Aren't Alright" opens like an Iron Maiden anthem, and "Why Don't You Get a Job?" is a blatant reggae-style spoof of the Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da." Musically, Americana offers no real revelations, but the songs are a bit craftier and more diverse than the rest of the Offspring oeuvre, veering haphazardly between anthemic punk metal, blistering hardcore, and near-psychedelic experimentation. --Jon Wiederhorn
USA Today
Most bands would be skewered for failing to mature from one album to the next, but arrested adolescence is a virtue in the Offspring's case.