Album #13 : The Offspring - Smash

The Offspring

Smash (1994)

Alright. Show of hands, ladies and gentlemen. How many of you owned this album when you were younger? How many of you listened to it incessantly? How often would this album form part of the soundtrack of your underage nights on the piss?

You can all put your hands down now.

I remember vividly when Smash came out. I remember hearing Come Out And Play and wanting that dickface who kept saying, "you gotta keep 'em separated" to have his head separated from his neck. I remember the Self Esteem music video, that stupid x-rayed skull singing LALALAAALLALALALAAALALALALALAALAAAAAAA only its jaw wasn't moving in time with the singing and it looked ridiculous. I remember thinking that Self Esteem was a cool song and identifying with its YEAH LOW SELF ESTEEM YOU SUCK message.

Yep, it reminds me of my teenage years alright.

There's always a danger though that when you, years later, revisit some of those entertainment choices of your past, you find they haven't aged well. Man, wasn't Hey Dad a funny show? That Nudge, he sure could eat. Well, no, it was a terribly formulaic and lame comedy that relied on banal character traits for laughs. Wasn't Captain Planet so extravagant with all its big name voice talent and its message for the future? No, actually, it was an ugly as fuck cartoon that chose the very worst and most obvious stereotypes to teach its message (and no, Heart is STILL NOT A POWER. YOU SUCK, MA-TI.)

The purpose of that terribly laboured introduction is this: has Smash aged well?

The answer is......

The Album

After a brief and confusing spoken word intro (like The Offspring's fans were into the consumption of grape-based beverages), we begin what is an enthrallingly heavy take on the Californian punk sound of the 1990s. Make no mistake, Smash is packed with energy; churning, heavy riffs, deep thunderous bass and drums, and the vocals of Dexter Holland. I have always personally preferred the vocal sound on this album to any other - double tracked yet sounding as though Holland was standing ten yards away from the microphone. It allows the vocals to have power without being the dominant component of the music, which is nearly always the guitar.

Examples of this heavy punk sound abound on Smash. Opening track Nitro (Youth Energy) has plenty of it and sets the benchmark for what is to follow. Genocide, Not The One and Smash walk through that door, catchy as fuck and clicking along at a headbopping tempo. For mine, the pick of the wholly uptempo punk tracks on the album is It'll Be A Long Time, not just because the off-kilter guitar rhythm sounds awesome, but also because of the midsection tempo change; a sudden slow tempo is like a kick in the stomach, powerful and effective, before taking you back to Manic Punk Tempo Town.

Come Out And Play is a song I don't need to write much about - everyone knows it already. It's not the best song on this album (I wouldn't even put it in the top three) but it's easy to see why it was a big hit; the Arabian guitar lead is catchy and adds distinctiveness to the song, and it shows the heaviness of the album sound without being offputting. It's good, don't get me wrong, but not great. 

The highlights of the album? Bad Habit reminds me of a movie where there's a stick of dynamite. The fuse is burning ever so slowly towards its final fate...but instead of being extinguished, it ignites the dynamite with a BOOOOM. That's Bad Habit. The hypnotic, repetitive bass line lures you in, along with the vocal, before Holland warns us that he just might snap and BOOOOOM. Off goes the dynamite. It is absolutely manic (appropriate for a song about road rage WITH GUNS) and a cracking song. Self Esteem does deserve its praise and hit status. Whiny lyrics (and I do definitely believe the vocal delivery is different on this song than the others) encapsulate the pathetic nature of the song's narrator. The bass line is again hypnotic, the riffs heavy. If it really is the band's 'signature' song there aren't too many better to have represent them. Gotta Get Away owes more to grunge than punk; a slower tempo married to a bottom-heavy riff channels Nirvana, as do the vocals at times. Nevertheless it is another undoubted highlight because it just sounds so damn good.

As a final note, the album also has a secret track, which is an 'acoustic reprise' of Come Out And Play. While I'm not against secret tracks per se, I don't like it when they're pointless shit, as this one is. 

The Verdict

Y'know what? I don't think Smash sounds particularly dated at all. Listened to objectively, free of emotional attachment, much of it still sounds fresh, vibrant and vital; after all these years it's still a great listen. It's not seeking to make some grandiose statement, it's just good quality heavy Cali-punk. I would go so far to say that it has aged better than some of the band's more laughable followups (Pretty Fly For A White Guy, anyone?)

I'm not going to say that this is their creative peak (some may say that was this album's followup, Ixnay on the Hombre, while others might believe that Na Na Why Don't You Get A Job represents The Offspring's musical Everest). What I will say is that Smash deserved to break the band as a commercial success because it's so easy to listen to. Heavy without being abrasive, catchy without being poppy, Smash is the sound of a band walking the tightrope between little-known FUCK YOU punk and middle of the road pop punk and never once managing to fall off.

So if you're one of those people who had your hands up at the start, and it's been AAAAAAGES since you listened to Smash....give it a spin. Endure the feelings of nostalgia and enjoy feeling like you're a teenager again, wailing about having no self-esteem and agreeing with your mates that 'yeah I totally would have nailed that chick as well'.

My verdict: It's the Transformers Movie - still kickarse after all these years.

Oh I mean *** and a half

Standout Tracks

Bad Habit

Self Esteem

Gotta Get Away

Tomorrow, I travel back to the 1960s for the first time in The LOAD Project to review an album that has received nothing but massive critical praise since its release, yet if you were to read the description of the album's concept, you'd probably rather insert rusted knitting needles into the eye of your cock than listen to the album. 

Still can't be worse than Nickelback though surely?