The Offspring
Americana

THE REVIEW

"Welcome to Americana please make your selection followed by the # sign now" 

The album in question begins with an intro, now a trademark of every Offspring album. It quickly kicks off with "Have you ever", the style is melodic and fast punk rock, a typical Offspring song, and its catchiness is incredible, the melody instantly gets in your head. And this album is permeated by this style, whether you like it or not.

It's not a question of being commercial or not (since when do you make music to NOT sell it?) it's all about catchiness. The tracks are much more immediate than 'Smash', and paradoxically this "Americana" is the younger brother of 'Ixnay On the Hombre', which, if you remember, varied a lot from the sound of the previous album. Of course, the song "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" is ironic, and musically speaking it's rather dull. But it must be recognized that, in my opinion, this "Americana" contains some of the most beautiful songs by the Offspring, like "The Kids aren't alright", "Americana", and "Pay the Man". And it is precisely "Pay the Man" that deserves a separate review, the longest Offspring song (if my memory doesn't fail me), about 8 minutes of riffs with an Arabic and oriental flavor.

"Feelings" is, in my opinion, one of the worst on the album, cloying and overly sweet. The other songs remain more or less at a decent standard, including the fun nursery rhyme of "Why don't you get a job", which, although very similar to obladioblada, is still pleasant and fun. The themes of the album mainly deal with today's America, depression, and marginalization. In fact, the lyrics of "The kids aren't alright" are some of the deepest. It's difficult to judge the work because musically speaking, the work is not bad. However, the aftertaste of two or three gaudy and "cunning" songs remains. The right rating would be between 3 and 4 stars.

In short, the album that made the Offspring known to the general public for its incredible catchiness. However, talking about its content at the level of the lyrics, that's a whole other story...