The Offspring – Days Go By album review

Ok, so let’s just save everyone a lot of time and say that “Day Go By” (like their previous 5 albums) is not an acceptable sequel to “Smash” (released 18 years ago, and on my top albums list of the 90s). And, we should probably all move on and accept the fact that the heavy punk band that made us ‘angry at society’ (even though we had no real idea what that meant while we listened to the cassette in our parent’s basements) is long gone, and the new ‘The Offspring pop punk band’, that is more comical then political took their place. Maybe I’m being a little unfair, considering that a band has to mature with their fans, and we’d probably harp on them if they hadn’t grown in some way, so let us take a closer look.

It really seems like they pieced this album together, as a sort of greatest hits of unreleased tracks. If you only listened to the first 5 tracks (I recommend doing this and just forgetting the rest of the album), then you’d almost think that they hadn’t completely forgotten their 90s punk roots. And then of course out of sheer curiosity (or perhaps you forgot to eject the cassette) you listen to track 6 “Cruising California (Bumpin’ In My Trunk)” and well with a title like that I don’t think I need to explain what happens next, but I’m going to anyway. What happens is, you find yourself reeling back from the speakers and madly clawing at the stereo to change the radio station because it somehow skipped to a top 40 high-school pop station, eventually you come to the sad realization that this is just another track on your new Offspring album, ‘oh why did you ever have to let it get to track 6?’ However, their is hope because if you can make through track 6, have yourself a good laugh all through track 7 (where apparently The Offspring had an identity crisis and tried producing a rock ballad for tweens), and finally knuckling down to make it through the next three errors then you’ll be rewarded with the final two tracks (more decent punk-rock). Good job, you’ve made it.

At the end of the day I guess you might as well, “kick of your shoes, put your feet up, lean back and just enjoy the….” well, just enjoy the fact that we were ever given the gift of “Smash”, and maybe support the band by purchasing a copy of it instead of “Days Go By”.