Ixnay on the Hombre - Offspring (The) (CD 1997)

There was a time in my life where I really did like Cali punkers The Offspring. Granted, I absolutely f*cking hated them when Keep Em Separated was being played every other video on MTV and once every half hour on rock radio. And their recent output, be it Pretty Fly for a White Guy, Original Prankster or the newest piece of garbage on radio, Hit That, has been dismal, to say the least (for some reason, I have this real big guilty pleasure thing for that Want You Bad song though). Anyways, after seeing them on a co-headlining bill in 1997 with my favorite sons The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, I was impressed enough with their live show that I decided to give Ixnay on the Hombre a chance. To this day, it remains one of the best chances I took.

Ixnay on the Hombre successfully ties together all the sides of the Offspring that has been presented to the public. There is the novelty giggle part, the straight up punk rock part, the pop punk part, and the more rock than anything part. Despite the variety of sounds on the album, it somehow all sounds cohesive, and it never ends up sounding like a plea to be accepted, which quite frankly, is what the Americana album sounded like all too much of the time.

As this disc was released in 1997, the band was under tremendous pressure to follow up the success of 1994's Smash, which apart from the uber-popular Keep Em Separated single mentioned above, also spawned the uber-popular singles Self Esteem and Gotta Get Away. Adding to the pressure was the fact they had signed with Columbia Records; in other words, in the eyes of many of their punk brethren, they had done the unacceptable: sell out. The pressure is reflected in the more anthemic songs on the record, most notably what was the second single, Gone Away, which has some musical elements very similar to those found in the above-mentioned Gotta Get Away.

When I first bought the album, one of the songs I first gravitated towards was of course Cool To Hate. While now I look at it as one of the weakest tracks on the album lyrically, musically it's a pretty good straight up punk rave that has some good intensity to it. Again, you can't do much with those lyrics, but if you're 17 as I was, they sound great.

The band wants you to know that they haven't lost their sense of humor, and the album begins on a rather humorous note with a Disclaimer, which is literally a guy warning you about what the album contains. Ultimately, the last line ("and if it offends you, just don't listen to it") ends up being the most worthy line, although it is a rather humorous way to start an album.

From there, you're thrown into the 300mph speed derby that is The Meaning of Life, which has some of the better lyrical quips on the entire disc ("I gotta go find my own way, I gotta make my own mistakes..."). This song is only eclipsed in speed by what was the first single, All I Want. No doubt released to end the major label doubts, this is straight up punk played hard and fast.

While not truly pop punk, there are a couple of shout along anthems here that rank among the band's best songs in their entire catalog. I Choose opens with a biting guitar riff, a riff that truly carries the song throughout, with the help of some nice percussion work (one of the only times you can say that about any Offspring song) and some handclaps. The other is Way Down the Line, which has frenetic energy to it once you get by the joyous chorus that opens the song.

The band moves into a bit of a reggae/ska experimental mode for Don't Pick It Up, which is about as asinine lyrically as a song can possibly be, but the change of pace in the music is nice and this is definitely not a song to be skipped over. This is followed by a more straight ahead (if a tad harder edged) pop punk song called Amazed, which is also sonically reminiscent of the band Bush in places.

Ixnay on the Hombre is not a perfect album by any means. Both the goofy Disclaimer mentioned above and the funny the first couple of times through but annoying afterwards Intermission tracks seem more like album lengtheners than anything else. Elsewhere, the band's songwriting is still not all that great in spots, as evidenced by Cool to Hate. But ultimately, the band shows a certain spark and energy that has been noticeably missing from recent releases. The album is full of excellent hooks and choruses that scream to be well, screamed along with. All of this adds up to Ixnay on the Hombre being the last truly great Offspring album.

4.5 stars


Great Music to Play While: wondering what the hell happened to these guys and why they suck so bad now.