Album Review: The Offspring - Smash (1994)

The last time I got into The Offspring, it was 2001, and the album was Ixnay on the Hombre. There were two songs that I thought were just the cat's ass, "The Meaning of Life" and "I Choose." The rest of the album got pooh-poohed faster than a drunken flasher at a Women's Refuge. Since then I never thought once about investing or even listening to an Offspring CD, until recently. Smash is one of those very rare albums where the crappiest tracks get radio play and all the good ones don't. It is, in many aspects, very much the opposite of Ixnae on the Hombre. You can forget "Come out and Play" and "Self-Esteem", they are bollocks compared to the rest of the album, and will put you to sleep faster than a London pantomime in 35 degrees celsius weather. Therefore you should only really listen to them when you've been excessively liberal with your caffeine intake and you need to get up early the next morning, or you want to die and need something to help speed up the process. Hell, even that pointless and stupid 26 second intro, "Time to Relax" is more exciting. All up, however, it is a very good album, and is an essential addition to any punk rock fanatic's collection. A-