The Offspring
Greatest Hits

THE REVIEW

I admit: writing a balanced and honest review of a band like The Offspring is very difficult for me, as, along with Sum 41, Blink182, and to a lesser extent, Green Day, they were one of the key bands of my adolescence, alternately paired with the joys, sorrows, and frustrations of the period. The Offspring certainly cannot be defined as a classic punk rock band against the star system, at least when analyzing their entire career, full of commercial successes that have made them loved by a large portion of the public, but at the same time, hated by the purists of the genre. This collection tells more about the carefree, commercial, thoughtless side, starting with some tracks from their early albums "Come Out And Play," "Self Esteem" (I challenge anyone to listen to it without nodding their head), "Gotta Get Away," "All I Want," and "Gone Away." From this point on, it dives into the band's long and successful (at least commercially) phase, from the omnipresent Rap-Pop-Rock of "Pretty Fly," to the catchy version of "Why Don't You Get A Job" (see Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da) and so on. The path taken by the band is now clear: to make catchy songs with that hint of anger just enough to be appreciated by fans angry with the world, all while not losing a bit of the "melodic appeal" necessary for sales. Despite this, I don't think they are a band to be condemned just because they rode the wave of success, where others have miserably failed; and if you don't like it, you can always avoid buying the record!

Final verdict: only for nostalgic sixteen-year-olds or current sixteen-year-olds!