Smash

Offspring is like Taco Bell for Punk. If someone said "I want Mexican food" it isn't my recommendation, but it deserves it own category for just how tasty it can be, ya dig?

It’s been nearly 30 years since I listened to this album. I remember sitting on the bus down to Washington DC for my 8th Grade class trip and playing this on my Walkman. As an angsty 14 year old, this album was the shit. In my 40’s it just reminds me of being an angsty teenager. Musically, it’s aggressive pop-punk of its time, and more enjoyable than the music The Offspring would later have hits with, they still had a bit of indie cred on this one, if you will. Damn you, generator, for reminding me of the unstoppable passage of time. I still can’t believe 1994 was almost 30 years ago. Oooh…and it’s got a secret song. How 90’s is that?

super nostalgic crazy taxi tony hawk's pro skater vibes. I can smell the round table pizza, and these songs are catchy gritty fun. a simpler time

This came out when I was 13-14 years old. I was pretty much the target audience for this and it never really grabbed me back then. Still doesn't. I have a certain nostalgic thing for "Self Esteem" but that's about it. That one in particular has a more Nirvana like feel which is probably why I'm more attracted to it. Oh man the "secret track" at the end - forgot about those and how they'd translate to modern streaming. So of it's time.

Nails on a chalkboard

I forget how good this is. Messy mid-90's skate punk, the stuff that got me properly into exploring music

Was never a fan at the time and hasn't aged any better. Barely made it to the end.

Great album. It really shows off the sound that is the offspring. Not a radical departure from their previous works but enough to freshen up their music. This also contains a lot of singles that were, for most people , their intro to the offspring. Well worth a listen and for anyone looking to get into some good punk rock.

Really don’t like his voice I felt like my brain was being drilled at one point

Smash is definitely the right title for the album, because every song is like a smash to the face of pure punk ferocity. The Offspring walk the fine line of being tonally aware, hardcore, pissed off, and a little funny all at the same time and it’s flawlessly executed. This was the jumping off point for every 90s kid who didn’t know where to start with punk rock.

The Offspring are a bit of a mystery to me. They're clearly capable of elevating and in some ways redefining punk, but often content to settle down and succumb to the laziest tropes of the genre. Fortunately, most of their best work is captured in one album. If you were to make a true best of compilation, you might grab one or two from elsewhere, but the collection would start and end with Smash. It's filled with allusions and wordplay that reward repeated listens, and you'll want to listen again, because it fucking rocks. I don't know if it's a shame that they couldn't replicate that success or a blessing that they did it once. Best track: Come Out and Play

The mere fact that The Offspring is in this list and NOFX isn't perfectly encapsulates what's so goddamn wrong with Dimery's book sometimes. Commercial success is definitely favored over artistic merits once in a while. Usually, punk rock isn't too plagued with that sort of 'commercial concern', which makes a lot of punk albums in the list relevant. But here, it's pretty much the opposite that's going on... And it's quite frustrating. Just so you know, I really tried to listen to the album with fresh new ears, but this didn't really change my initial assessment of this record (and band) when it came out: because that thing's not so good, is it? To be clear, the problem is not merely that the band's music was way overrated by my generation. The problem was that as a songwriter, Dexter Holland was just a shrewd, cynical, opportunistic fox, and it shows. Never bought that pretense that the band didn't see their success coming, by the way. Everything in *Smash*'s singles is formatted so that said success could happen. And by "formatted", I mean *ripped off* from other 'trendy' bands at the time. Which gives an interesting subtext to some of Holland's lyrics. Are his claim that he's not a "trendy asshole" on the song "Smash" to be taken ironically, for instance? You tell me. I mean, how can you listen to *Self-Esteem* and *Gotta Get Away* and NOT see that it's a soulless attempt to replicate's Nirvana's formula? 'Soulless' being the key word to remember here. I know Kurt Cobain himself ripped off a few bands to create his timeless songs--so I guess there's still that to take into account--but at least he ripped off arcane stuff released by Killing Joke or Boston a decade or more before *Nevermind*. He didn't rip off a band that had a massive breakout success a couple of years ago. Well, Holland and his band did. OK, Cobain readily admitted that he also ripped off Pixies, not a breakout success into the mainstream at the time, but still a very important band. But at least Kurt brought his own subtle and elegant vocal harmonies to the whole thing. That's the reason most Nirvana songs sound great on an acoustic guitar and ones by The Offspring don't. What did Holland bring to that template, in comparison? To me, he brought a few simplistic, hackneyed melodies signalling his thing was all about style, not *substance*. And how much more cynical and opportunistic than that can you get, huh? About Dexter Holland's "opportunistic" tendencies, a quick sidenote: when the Nirvana tap petered out, The Offspring had to find other sources of inspiration, obviously. For a subsequent hit single a few years after *Smash*, Holland thus elected to rip off The Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"! How can you rip off The Beatles and choose one of their WORST SONGS EVER??? (instead of their many marvels)... Oh I have the answer: because it annoyingly lingers in people's heads, just like most of the famous songs recorded by The Offspring. Checks out. If enough people remember said tune--even if it's annoying to an extent--a lot of folks in general audiences will buy the damn thing anyway. Simple, eh? To return to *Smash*, it's got a couple of other memorable tracks at the start of the record, "Nitro' and "Bad Habit", and they're more in line with what the Epitaph roster was doing at the time. So I guess those two tracks are less opportunistic than the singles, at least. Speaking of singles, cheek-in-tongue "Come Out And Play" is not so bad, to be honest, but it got overplayed on the radio at the time the album was released, so I can't listen to it anymore. And apart from those few highlights I've listed here, everything else is pretty lame. There's even a mandatory ska-punk track on side two. Just in case that other trend might be useful to sell a few more unit shifters to a few more 'alternative' kids out there, I imagine. Ugh. 🙄 One last thing: Dexter's voice is quite grating in many parts of the record, even in the few good tracks in it. 'Punk' means raw or rough, I get that. Yet, there's also a whiny quality to his vocals that actually goes against the intended energy he displays while singing those songs. Maybe that whiny grain made the whole thing palatable for young mainstream audiences at the time, I don't know. To be fair, those sorts of 'flat', whiny vocals were to be found in many other skate-punk albums released around those years, so this is probably only a matter of personal taste here. But mine says such vocals didn't age well anyway. Holland is still a very talented man, don't get me wrong. It takes a lot of skills to manage the sort of shrewd success he's had with The Offspring. Besides, I've just read on Wikipedia that the man has many other assets I would never have imagined from a guy like him. He's a plane pilot, an entrepreneur, a charity fundraiser, a cook, and a science researcher. The last area is the most impressive endeavor, by the way. Working in molecular biology to potentially help find a vaccine against AIDS is worthy of all the praise you can give someone. So who cares if you never wrote a *truly* essential album when you were younger (and yet had a lot of success with it)? Trying hard to end on a *positive* note here. But it's not enough to make me include this LP in my own list. 2/5 for the purposes of such a list (which means 7/10 for a more general assessment: 5+2). Next, please. Number of albums left to review: 596 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 193 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 90 Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more essential to me): 121 (including this one)

4.5 stars. Fantastic album. Could do with fewer "ooohhoohhh's and yeaaaheeaaahhs" but this is just a great punk rock album. Lots of energy, catchy choruses. Takes a little edge off of some of the rawer punk, but not overly pop-y. Standouts are "Bad Habit", "Gotta Get Away", and "Self Esteem".

"Ahh, it's time to relax." This album is amazing. I first listened to it when I was around 10, and it really got me into a lot of the rock and punk that I love now. If I could rate this album higher than 5, I would.

Etant un habitué des albums de musique, j'avais avant même de lancer l'album reperé le derneir son de 10mn, et savait déjà que l'objectif était de cacher une chanson, comme de nombreux illustres groupes l'ont fait par le passé. Cette pratique extrêmement chiante il faut bien le dire, permet toujours au groupe l'utilisant de caler un sample egyptien de pyramide dans la plus grande discrétion. Ici, The Offspring vont plus loin, se déguisant absolument tous en sphynx, et restant immobiles a quates pattes pendant de longues minutes. L'un des membres va même jusqu'a se couper le nez. Un spectacle original, se déroulant donc dans l'intimité la plus totale d'une fin d'album des plus secrètes. Un délice.

I don't hate this, it does remind me of uni students with long greasy hair and plans to drink lots of beer once they finish studying with this blasting out and rollups filling their ashtrays. It is a big cheesy lyrically but it has great rhythms and it is really melodic vocally. I honestly am very happy to keep listening to the end.

“You know who’s good? Nirvana, y’all should try to sound like them” It didn’t work

More melodic than some punk music, but still not worth sitting through. No matter what the narrator says. The desert riff from Come Out and Play was the best part of the album, but there are no bonus points for playing it again after making me sit through five minutes of silence. Nice try.

Быстро! Мощно! Драйвово! Легендарно! Это то, что было есть и будет со мной! Без лишних слов и красивых метафор)) просто идите нахуй ))

Hard not to enjoy this fun album. I own it. Haven’t played it in forever, but it’s solid.

This music garners the slightest of shrugs from me, but their faithful cover of the Didjits' "Killboy Powerhead" has given the great Midwest rockers an income for life, to which I raise my beret. Otherwise, to my ignorant ears this is all “you like chicken, I like bread, yeah ya-yeah-yeah yeah-yeah yeah”.

I tried really hard to like this. But almost every song sounded the same.

For this album, The Offspring's goal was to convince everyone that they are a one trick pony. In this case, every song sounds nearly identical to the next. Each one was basically guitar banging and yelling. You only need to listen to one song, any song, to check the box for this album. Scale: 5 - My absolute favorites. 4 - Albums I like. 3 - It was ok to listen to but I wouldn't seek it out. 2 - Didn't like. 1 - Absolute shit.

If you're into funk and angsty rock this album is probably for you. I enjoyed a few songs but after a while, it becomes quite dull.

Yikes 90s American skate punk is not really me. Bit like Green Day. Bit angry and sweary and shouty. Gonna try my best bit may not last tbe whole album. Ok got to track 8 then gave up because I'm not enjoying it and lm a bit tired tbh..Hard to compare i know but I prefer it to that Slice in Chains album..

Come out to play and self esteem are particular highlights for me as they are more the vibe of offspring I prefer. The rest of the album is filled with the more thrashier side of punk which I'm less bothered about.

I would avoid this kind of thing when it came out, how right I was. Boring, tuneless and juvenile; dreadful from top to bottom. Lowlights are the appaling vocals and the rhythm section - simultaneously amateur and unmusical, whilst timid and tedious. This is punk in the way LOL dolls are Simone de Beauvoir

Never really got into this band. Too metal for my taste. Too Midwest college frat bitch. I dont like spending time with the people who listen to this.

Just a regular Offspring album, in other words, horrible

In "Gotta Get Away", Dexter Holland shouts "Life is like a riddle and I'm really stumped". Replace life with music, songwriting, or art and you get the thesis of this album: a group of guys stumped about making music, but for some God-forsaken reason trying to do it anyways. Sometimes the songs aren't half bad ("Come Out and Play (Keep 'em Separated)"; "What Happened to You?"). But, those songs hardly redeem this album. "Bad Habit" sounds like a Bleach C-side where Holland has a quarter of Cobain's charisma and none of his songwriting ability. I assume "Genocide" was some sort of protest against the Rwandan Genocide, but it is filled with trite cliches and meaningless words that are supposed to convince the listener of what exactly? If it wasn't meant as a protest song to the Rwandan Genocide, then these guys are fucking tone deaf idiots. Judging from "It'll Be a Long Time", they probably are. The song says nothing meaningful, and is filled with truly poetic lines like "Superpowers flex their wings/Hold the world on puppet strings". Someone should tell Holland that protest songs are supposed to say something meaningful about the present day (a la System of a Down) and that sarcasm is only effective if the writer has an interesting point to drive home (a la Green Day).

Cool 90s

You'll either love it or hate it, but I LOVE IT

The sound of my childhood. I just remembered the hits bit the rest of the album is also so good. Nice to have it pop up here.

it's really not my style, i don't really bond with straightforward punk that much but there's no fear or disdain of actual songcraft which is nice. has a few bangers. some of the songs are samey, but the singles especially have really unusual melodic bits (at least for hardcore) that satisfy my ears. and i think the vocals give it a nice edge that the contemporary pop punk bands of the day didn't have. not bad!

@shuck: lol

An essential to punk as a genre and a visualization of the essence of rock in the 90s. Plenty of other great albums came out in the decade, but I don't think this is one to sleep on. Love the opening intro too, it's something I always strive to do after a long day and some good tunes helps me relax.

1994 was the year that defined my taste in music for the next decades. Punk in Drublic, Dookie, Stranger than Fiction and Smash. Can’t believe it’s been 30 years already! This is the album that broke punk, along with Dookie, and it’s still The Offspring’s best album. So many bangers, but also a little filler. Genocide, Killboy Powerhead and So Alone don’t reach the heights of the other songs. But none of them are bad, so I guess the 5 stars are warranted

IT WAS SO GOOD!!! I am so going to listen to them more. I listened to another album of theirs and I love their style

One of my all-time faves

Lekker rauw, energiek, en goede nummers, pop-punk op z’n best.

Banger han das als chind aafange lose und gotta get away au uf de drums gspielt insanes album The offspring crazy geil

Confession time. I love me some pop punk and this album may be in the Mount Rushmore of pop punk albums. Does it deserve a 5*? Probably not. But nostalgia factor is huge and oh boy did I have a blast revisiting it. 4.5/5

Great nineties punk rock

One of my all time favorites!

Haven't heard this album since I was a teenager, it brought me back many years.

Lol love the spoken word parts at the beginning and end of a fast-paced punk album. Oh hell yeah.

Amazing album! Love The Offispring. I loved the radio voice over for the beginning and end of the album.

Ahh the return of the hidden tracks! This sounded like my childhood and reminds me of car rides with my dad. Cannot believe it’s been 30 years since it was released.

Just good old classic punk that became a staple in HS from 101X

I don't think I've ever listened to this record straight through, so was excited for the opportunity. It did not disappoint (like the previous two records we had to slog through). Highlights: the mention of "compact disc" on track 1, Genocide - what an absolute banger. This is technically 4.5 stars because I really don't enjoy Dexter's voice but I appreciate how this record made music like this more accessible to the general public.

Mighty entertaining skate punk!

Absolutely brutal lyrics combined with a defined punk sound that really aggravates me in the right way. I could imagine myself moshing like a madman to this. I absolutely love the genre and feel like they might not have adhered to the true nature of punk, but damn they made it worth it.

Yes please!

And just like that I’m 16 again, on a school bus for an excursion to somewhere and my mate passes me his Discman and says, “listen to this”. It was my intro to punk, I learned the riff to “Cone Out and Play” - it opened the door for me to Green Day, which brought me to Bad Religion and then Propagandhi. A love affair to be sure. I didn’t keep up with the Offspring, but I appreciate what they did for me. 5 stars - less for the album than what it meant to my future life.

Love it! 5/5

Good album, took me back to my youth

Damn I friggin love this album. This whole album was a nostalgic trip and I'm so grateful I've seen The Offspring live. Favourites were Come Out and Play, Self Esteem, and What Happened To You. In particular with WHTY I'm obsessed with the change of pace throughout the song, and love how the beat was super funky. Overall the album was just fantastic. It's one of my go tos for when I need something fast paced and high energy because I'll never not want to start moshing when The Offspring come on

Total smash

This just continues with catchy songs and high energy from start to finish: I love it.

It slaps

Big Offspring fan. Grew up in the era of the 90's punk resurgence where pop-punk began and could listen to it all day. I'll crank Come Out and Play/Self Esteem any time I hear them on the radio but I also love Bad Habit and the ska leaning What Happened to You?

Love this album. Have it memorized.

Damn this sounds like high school. It's pop punk, fast and fun. It's oftentimes dumb but I can't help but love it. Ive known all these songs for a while, and my favorites on this album are probably Come Out and Play and Self Esteem, but I was looking for a new one to appreciate and I think Killboy Piwerhead scratches the itch for me.

10/10 Offspring

This is hardly fair. Offspring was my favorite band in high school and this is their best album. 5 stars. Although I am slightly annoyed by the hidden track at the end of the album. That trend was never good and it didn't age well.

This is, in my opinion, the best generation of punk music. It's raw and energetic while still sounding very good. Great album.

Love Offspring, back to my youth

Energy is great

I grew up on this album how could I not give it a 5.

Good

What a great album! It’s a must have in the collection

Absolutely banging album. Self Esteem has to be one of my favourite Offspring tracks.

Ah, it's time to relax You know what that means A glass of wine, your favourite easy chair And of course, this compact disc Playing on your home stereo So, go on, and indulge yourself That's right, kick off your shoes Put your feet up Lean back and just enjoy the melodies After all, music soothes even the savage beast

I can hear this album in its entirety in my brain, and for 30 years no less.

Already loved The Offspring. Really enjoyed this album too. Also the lyrics were just great, for example: "YOU STUPID... DUMB SHIT... GOD DAMN MOTHERFUCKER". Straight poetry

so good. first 8 tracks are sublime

interesting to see how early this came out. Really thought this was late nineties at the earliest.

10/10 just pure bangers

Very nice

Love this band since highschool.

One of my favorite albums by my favorite band? Yeah, I've been waiting for this one. From an objective point of view, I think Ignition and Americana are better albums (they've never sounded better than on Americana, in my opinion, and the non-single songs are some of the best they've ever done, and Ignition is where they're lyrically at their best). However, it makes total sense for this album to be on here. It changed the game. Really brought punk to the mainstream in the 90s in a way other bands weren't and paved the way for the success of bands like Blink 182 and Rancid. Even though I was a kid in 1994, I remember this album being such a big deal. Listening to it with my older brother is what made me a lifelong fan of The Offspring. Let's talk about the songs. My brother had a copy of Spin magazine with Dexter Holland on the cover that I used to steal and read the article on them over and over. While it was during the Americana days, Dexter talked about what persuaded him to write "Bad Habit," and it endeared me to the song ever since. Plus, how can you hate a song with the lyrics "stupid dumbshit goddamn motherfucker?" "Self Esteem" is their masterpiece. Hands down, no questions. "Come Out and Play," "Bad Habit," "Nitro (Youth Energy)," and "Smash" are my other favorites, but honestly there isn't one song on here that I don't like in some way. Still know all the words. Still belt them at the top of my lungs. Practically a perfect record.

This is a classic to me. Good all the way through. 5/5

I’ve listened to this about a million times… And the excitement is still there! After listening to it today I went out and bleached my hair, bought a skateboard and one of those awesome shirts with the flames up it, some wraparound Oakley sunglasses and a wallet chain! Fuckin’ fuck yeah!

Excellent punk album. I feel like in a time when punk was becoming to become more poppy with bands like blink and good charlotte these guys stayed a bit more traditional. Lots of good tracks and some of their best.

This is a freaking awesome album. I listened to it tonight and it is a rocker. I knew big chunks of the album and had just forgotten how cool this album is. This is not a back decker with the wife! It is an in your face, run like a bat out of hell screamer that would be great alone for a predate.

One of the very first CDs I ever got was an Offspring single that I won on a tombola in primary school. I hated it at first, but it grew on me a lot over time. By the time I was 15, I was playing Want You Bad in my band. Anyway, I digress. This album is absolutely banging and I love it. It got quite nostalgic listening to it. The Offspring are just great.

Oh yeah!

This album is definitely in my top picks and have it on wax.

This is my teenage years in a single album.

I am biased and have always loved this album. This one gets a biased 5 stars from me.

Not my favorite Offspring album, but I'd agree that this is their most influential album. As a huge fan of pop-punk in the aughts, I am by default a fan of The Offspring and the road they paved. Side story: I will always remember a van ride with the family circa 1994-5 while my dad was driving and in control of the radio. His preference was 97.5 and 98.5, while my sisters and I preferred 100.7 and 92.3 and 107.9 (although I'm guessing this was before 107.9 was The End). He said "I'll change the station if you can name the artist of one of these songs." We kept guessing, like, Eric Clapton or The Eagles as it was on 98.5 (Cleveland's classic rock), but to no avail. Then they had a commercial trying to make a dig at damn kids these days and what has befallen rock music, but don't worry, we're 98.5, we'll never play that shit. To make their point about terrible modern rock music, they used the intro to "Self-Esteem" that's just "La la lalala, la la lalala" which my sister correctly identified as The Offspring, so we were granted a station change on a technicality. A great win for punk rock. Anyway, I really enjoyed revisiting this album. Beforehand I was thinking it was a 4 with the iconic singles and some filler...but this holds up well in its entirety.

One of the best albums forever!

Probably one of my favorite albums ever, it's just the best. I still think I have my original Smash CD around here somewhere.

It's like happy hour at the punk rock cafe. Yes, I was familiar with The Offspring but have never sat down and listened (which is the point of this right!) and what a delight. It kicks off with such great energy and just keeps it going. Certainly, Genocide, Something to Believe In, and Come Out and Play are highlights but Self Esteem really does take the take. I never considered myself a fan but 5 stars easy.

Big nostalgia bump for this album - my first serious girlfriend was a fan, and then later on, some of the songs were karaoke staples. Fave tracks - "Self Esteem" for getting the whole room to scream along in karaoke. "Genocide" from the other tracks, on these play throughs....

This is my 420th album to review, and while not as on the nose as Peter Tosh's Legalize it would have been, The Offspring's Smash is still a good fit. I'm pretty familiar with a lot of The Offspring's work from the nineties (and some of their hits from the aughts); I had a burned copy of Americana that I listened to a lot in high school, and The Offspring was played quite a bit on the local alternative rock station. I also had their song "Want You Bad" as my girlfriend's ringtone at some point in college or my mid-twenties. I still love that song, but Christ, that was cringe-worthy. Punk and pop-punk music were some of my favorite alternative rock to listen to in high school. Blink 182, Green Day, and Sum 41 were probably my favorites, but The Offspring would have been right up there too. I didn't have any CD's by any of these bands (other than the burned copy of Americana), because my parents were very strict about any music that I bought, but that just made hearing songs by these bands on the radio that more special. In the late aughts, I got really into indie rock, and at that point, I had the belief that alternative rock was 'beneath me' (hey, we all have a period in our lives where we act kinda douchey), but I'm excited to listen to these guys for the first time in a while. I was not expecting to enjoy this album as much as I did. I thought this was fantastic from start to finish. The drumming and guitar playing were absolutely fantastic; I loved the fast tempo of most of the songs, but the slower songs like "Gotta Get Away" and "Self Esteem" hit just as hard. I love that some of the guitar playing has a Spanish/Mexican sound to it. I don't know how they came up with the idea to use that sound, but it's shocking to me how well it works on a nineties punk album. Dexter Holland's vocals are great, and there's just something about his voice that I love; I think he does a great job of conveying anger and disillusionment without having to yell or resort to gimmicks. Dexter's voice is really unique, and it's one of the things that makes The Offspring's music stand out from their contemporaries. Lyrically, this album is fantastic as well. These songs tackle so many topics: homelessness, militarism, mental health, relationships, etc. The political commentary is absolutely fantastic. I think a lot of people my age look at America in the nineties as having been a pretty docile time, but there was still so much going on: the public acknowledgment of the AIDS crisis, civil wars and uprisings taking place across the globe, gay rights moving to the forefront of the national conversation, and rises in gun violence. The nineties were a time of prosperity in our country, and culture tended to be more monolithic before the rise of the internet, so it's easy to ignore or forget about people who were suffering during that time. The Offspring manages to address all of the issues that they sing about in a way that feels really genuine. I really loved listening to this today, and this album has given me a new appreciation for The Offspring. This album is a work of genius, and despite its heavy tone, it's really fun to listen to, and it holds up really well thirty years (fuck me) later. The punk sound that The Offspring created on this album is really unique and perfectly captures the spirit of the decade. I wish I had owned a copy of this as a teeanger, but I'm certainly tempted to pick one up now.

I know many of the songs and never realized they were from this album. Excellent! It’s a refined punk grunge, much like what Metallica did to speed metal with their black album.

Pop punk :O .... but it's actually good !!! :O.

I gotta say, Smash was an album i really enjoyed from start to finish. The guitar work was easily my favorite part of it but the Nirvana like singing, the quick pace and the neat little melodies in certain songs really added to it. The bonus track didn't really add that much to the album but it was still a harmless little addition. I really like this album and its one that any punk or grunge enjoyer would love. Best Song: Something To Believe In Worst Song: What Happened To You

This one is an incredible pop-punk album that takes me back to high school