Album Review: The Offspring - Supercharged
Reviewed by Carl Black
Welcome to Americana… was the opening gambit from the Americana album by Offspring. What we received after was a massive slice of pure Americana. Supercharged, the new album by The Offspring should have started with the words… “Welcome to American… pop punk from the last 30 years”.
We know that Noodles and Dexter and not your ordinary punk rock cats. They've been at this for a time now, they could make any album they wanted, they always have and they always will. The Offspring have always been slightly above the moniker of punk, but dedicated to it also. Supercharged is by no means overcooked whatsoever, ten tracks coming in at over thirty minutes but under forty. They've taken bits and pieces from there previous albums and songs and splice them in with their very obvious influences. They make it seem so so simple.
Strangely, the album doesn't get off to the best of starts; they've decided to rewrite original prankster in the form of 'Looking Out For 1'. However the album shifts into top gear with 'Light It Up" a fast, pure Offspring punk rock track. This is Offspring’s best suit; they play fast, catchy, punk rock and roll extremely well and I wish they would do more of it. They don this suit again in 'Truth in Fiction' a Bad Religion styled, politicalised fast driven track.
And as much as I would like Offspring to do an album full of this material, they never will because they have several sides to them. They get a bit emotive on 'Ok But This Is The Last Time'. They hit us with a harder, metallic edge in the song 'Come to Brazil'. Their dip their toe in an epic, trippy song that reminds me of The Who circa Tommy with the album closer 'You Can't Get There From Here'.
The album is littered with "woh ho"’s, "bar da da da"'s and the like. In fact every other chorus has possibly got some kind of "woh ho" in it. In fact at the end of 'Coming to Brazil' we have an “ole ole ole”.
With Green Day touring massive stadiums with Rancid and with Sum 41, Blink-182 and Alkaline Trio all releasing albums this year, The Offspring were not going to remain silent. A history lesson of US pop punk. Pure Delight.
