It's hard to believe that it has been five years since The Offspring last released an album. While they were sleeping, A LOT has happened in the pop/punk realm. We've seen Green Day shatter the mold with the brilliant American Idiot. We've witnessed the disintegration of some of the more influential emo acts of the late nineties (Blink-182, The Get Up Kids). And finally, we've come full circle with a new bastion of self-important pop/punk bands attempting to churn out their own opuses (My Chemical Romance, Panic At The Disco). Somewhere along the lines, The Offspring ducked under the crowd, survived the fallout, and came out no worse off for the wear. Well, this might be a stretch. Popping out of nowhere with their first release since the fart in the wind that was 2003's Splinter, Dexter Holland and crew give us Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace (not to be confused with the Foo Fighters' latest album Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace) due out Tuesday. What we essentially get here is textbook Offspring -- aggressive three-chord radio-friendly rock thinly disguised as punk. And depending on whether you anticipated this, or expected growth from a veteran band, this record is either a steady rise or a sharp fall. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to side with the latter on this one. Because quite frankly The Offspring make their best music when they remember where they came from ("Killboy Powerhead", "All I Want") and NOT when they try to replicate the radio garbage of 1998 ("Pretty Fly For A White Guy", "Why Don't You Get A Job?"). It is evident that they've retained a bit of their angst-ridden, machine-gun speed punk, but these moments are few and far between. The record's first single, "Hammerhead," is not a half-bad tune, but this doesn't fill in the rather large gap left from their first foray in ballad-land ("Fix You"). And this DEFINITELY does not excuse the awfully-Nickelback sounding "Half-Truism" that starts the album off. The band even sounds suspiciously emo on "Kristy, Are You Doing Okay," which is definitely not a compliment. Other than this, there really is much else to say about this record. Longtime fans will probably enjoy it, but if it's the critics they set out to please on this one, they can expect to fall down before they rise.My Rating: 4.5/10
