Let’s take a moment to recall a few of the most memorable radio-edited lines of the mid-90s: “Drivers are rude / Such attitudes / But when I show my piece / Complaints cease / Something’s odd / I feel like I’m God / You stupid dumb s**t g*d d**n mother f****r!”
Ahh yeeaaah, so sit back, relax, and read about The Offspring and their latest album release…
Their debut self-titled album, The Offspring, was released in 1989. I’ll do the math for you – that’s 35 years ago – and the band is still going strong, releasing their 11th studio album, a 35-minute-long (coincidentally) energetic record aptly titled Supercharged. Perhaps it’s a sign that they’ve shed their rebellious youthfulness (frontman Dexter Holland is turning fifty-nine in December) or, like other bands, are searching for hope and serenity in their art to battle against real-world anxieties, but Supercharged is the band’s most joyfully rollicking and variety-filled pop punk record yet. It’s a blast to listen to, especially loud.
In the opening track, “Looking Out For #1,” Holland immediately frames a narrative of confidence and purpose that carries through the rest of the record, “It’s my way / My way / My way / And I really don’t care what you say / Looking out for #1.” Most of the songs on the album feature the thunderous drum beats and Kevin “Noodles” Wasserman’s engine-revving guitar licks that Offspring fans are used to, but a few tracks contain additional flare. “Make It All Right” is a pop-punk sing-a-long full of good vibes that would comfortably fit on a Blink-182 record. Holland sings, “We’re gonna fly away / Making fun of everyone / We’ll wax our wings and pray / But don’t get too close to the sun.” It’s no surprise this track was selected as an end-of-summer single. You can hear a similarly catchy, jubilant chorus on “OK, But This is the Last Time,” with the Holland bouncily announcing, “Take me, take me, take me for a ride / Make me, make me put revenge aside / I’ll say no, and you’ll say yes / Then I’ll say Ok, but this is the last time.”
“Truth in Fiction” is a traditional Offspring punk song, a hard-crunching two-minute mosh pitting journey where 21st-century deceits can be shaken away. Holland howls, “It hits you like an ocean as it crashes through your door / This tragedy unspoken I can’t take it anymore / Leave my loneliness unbroken quoth the Raven nevermore” and then the chorus bursts in with, “Well aha Deepfake / Truth in fiction’s our mistake / Aha Deepfake / Truth in fiction’s what we’ve made!”
“Come to Brazil,” an odd but entertaining choice as a single, is a grand-scale metal ballad dedicated to the band’s fans. Holland sings his appreciation: “It doesn’t matter how many times we came / ‘Cause they want us back again just the same / And the flights are long, but they won’t stop / Until we come to Brazil.” The song thumps in epic appreciation and ends in a hilariously charming finale—a rendition of the iconic Spanish chant olé, olé, olé.
The Offspring have come roaring back with two albums in three years after a ten-year hiatus in which Holland earned a PhD in Molecular Biology (!). If the Supercharged album art, title, running time, and song names are any indication, the band is feeling energetic about making music again. Their energy is contagious. While many bands shift their sound over time, The Offspring’s sound has remained relatively consistent. On the final track, “You Can’t Get There From Here,” a song that wraps up the album’s theme of facing the future with confidence and hope, the band takes a self-aggrandizing stance to issue a warning, “You’re listening to me ‘cause you can’t get rid of / That feeling when I say you can’t get there from here / I won’t let you forget the things if you had only / I’m the voices in your head like the pouring rain / I’ll take it all / But you built this palace / I’ll take it all / But you built this palace of pain.” I, for one, shall heed the warning but will always welcome the old and new voices of The Offspring in my head.
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