Smash

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Tue Nov 01 2022

3

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?

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Wed Jan 27 2021

2

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.

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Thu Jun 02 2022

5

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?

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Thu Jan 21 2021

5

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.

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Wed Mar 01 2023

1

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

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Mon Mar 08 2021

5

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

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Tue Jun 29 2021

5

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

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Sun Aug 08 2021

5

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.

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Thu Nov 19 2020

4

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

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Tue Apr 04 2023

2

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)

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Fri Feb 26 2021

5

"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.

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Tue Oct 25 2022

5

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".

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Mon Jan 18 2021

2

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

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Thu May 06 2021

2

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.

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Tue Aug 31 2021

2

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.

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Wed Apr 19 2023

2

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.

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Sat Mar 06 2021

1

Nails on a chalkboard

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Sun Jan 31 2021

1

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).

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Wed Jan 05 2022

1

Just a regular Offspring album, in other words, horrible

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Thu Mar 02 2023

1

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

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Tue Oct 06 2020

5

this is pretty much the best album of all time and i've heard it a kazillion times, it never gets old yewww

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Wed Dec 02 2020

5

Exactly what i think of when i hear the word punk

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Mon Sep 28 2020

5

Awesome album

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Tue Nov 10 2020

5

I've heard this album 100s of times. One of my best friends wore out 3 copies on CD when we were younger. Still great. Favorite tracks: "Bad Habit", "Killboy Powerhead", "Self Esteem"

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Thu Jan 21 2021

5

Best selling independent label album for a reason

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Tue Jan 19 2021

5

Fuck yeah

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Thu Jun 17 2021

5

I love it. I love this music. I love it.

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Sat Feb 13 2021

5

Fantastic album - their best.

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Thu Apr 15 2021

5

Fav Song: Come Out and Play

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Thu Mar 18 2021

5

OH Yes.

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Tue May 04 2021

5

The first CD I ever owned. It brings me back to that specific moment in time, even after all these years. It's affirming to me that I have good enough taste for this record to be on this list.

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Fri Jan 15 2021

5

Bei ricordi

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Mon Feb 08 2021

5

geilgeilegeilgeilgeilgeil. Mit diesem Sound verbinde ich 0,66 Despo, Rofaschlange 21:00 und weinende Emos. Und explizit diese alten gebürsteten Metalltische vor der Tanze vor der Bar zur Dj-Kanzel (die mit der Tribünenmäsigen anstieg), wo ich zum ersten mal mal verschiedene Dinge erfahren durfte: 1. BHs sind viel stabiler als ich dachte. 2. Kaschieren viel mehr dazu als ich dachte. 3. Brüste sind wirklich sehr weich. 4. Isy kann wirklich nicht gut küssen (ich kanns ja wohl nicht gewesen sein) 5. Leuten ist wirklich scheissegal was mal in dem Laden macht. 6. Saufen macht mich zum Aufreisser. 5* Liebs ganz ganz arg

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Mon Feb 08 2021

5

Ist halt geil. Würde auch jede andere natürliche Zahl >=5 geben als Rating, aber is halt aufgrund der programming boundaries nicht möglich.

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Sun Jan 24 2021

5

Daniel: “I’m down for that. That was good.” Diane: I fucking love The Offspring. Americana was the first cd I ever bought for myself. Really like the energy of this album. I think some of the instrumental stuff is really well thought through.

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Sat Feb 20 2021

5

Excellent one of my favorites

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Tue Apr 27 2021

5

Best album ever!

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Wed Apr 28 2021

5

My favourite offspring album.

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Fri Feb 19 2021

5

This could totally use a remaster

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Thu Apr 22 2021

5

I’ve always loved this album. One of my favourites and reminded me of how great The Offspring are. I still like them and enjoy the odd song but discount them because they aren’t the same band I grew up with.

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Thu May 13 2021

5

Superb

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Fri May 07 2021

5

My first journey into The Offspring world! a huge load of adrenaline!

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Sat Jul 10 2021

5

one of the best punk album of the 90's!

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Thu Jul 08 2021

5

front to back great. authentic 90s grunge mixed with fast punk rock riffs. classic.

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Thu Aug 12 2021

5

Classic!

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Tue Aug 17 2021

5

Nostalgisch album om luid op te zetten

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Thu Sep 09 2021

5

Tämä levy on vuosien saatossa tullut kuunneltua läpi monet kerrat. Tämä oli kova juttu silloin aikanaan ala-asteella ja kulkenut mukana myös opiskeluaikoina ja ihan viime aikoinakin, edelleen timanttista tavaraa. Eihän tämä mitään korkeakulttuuria ole, mutta energiaa ja asennetta on sitäkin enemmän. Self Esteem on tässä se tärkein biisi.

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Sat Sep 11 2021

5

An all time great. Probably the best punk album to come out of 1994. Right at the blossoming of my musical tastes as a child. This is nostalgic for me. Probably listened to this album 100 times. Just as good as the first time.

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Tue Sep 14 2021

5

One of my all-time fav punk albums

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Wed Oct 20 2021

5

Love this album have it on cd and vinyl.

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Tue Nov 23 2021

5

I loved this album as a teenager. I still love it.

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Thu Dec 09 2021

5

I love it …

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Sat Dec 11 2021

5

Punk-rock de los Offspring.

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Thu Dec 23 2021

5

Gun in the glovebox <3

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Tue Dec 28 2021

5

-”Nitro (Youth Energy)” is nice and fast and catchy with great drums -”Bad Habit” totally rips -The chorus in “Genocide” is very catchy. “Dog eat dog/Every day/On our fellow man we prey/Dog eat dog/To get by/Hope you like my genocide” -I’ve definitely heard “Come Out and Play,” specifically that “You gotta keep ‘em separated” line -Literally just a silent gap from 4:04 until 9:04 on “Smash.” The song is 10:40 and 5 entire minutes are just silent. -This has some seriously catchy and great stuff, I think it has a decent likelihood of getting a good number of listens from me. I’m going to give it 5 stars because I think it has some serious potential to get me much more into punk.

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Fri Dec 31 2021

5

Story time. This album came out my junior year of high school. My first boyfriend (Jeremy) and I listened to it incessantly. Listening to it now brought back all these fun memories of screaming the lyrics at the top of our lungs as we drove around or hung out with friends. After high school Jeremy got addicted to heroine. It was a long slow decline. He OD a few years ago and he’s dead now. RIP Jeremy. I can’t see or hear anybody but you when I listen to this album. And when I do, it’s nothing but joy.

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Sun Jan 02 2022

5

HELL YEAH

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Wed Jan 05 2022

5

Lekkere punkrock! Yeah!! Ik houd wel van die lekker snelle muziek, waarbij de overkoepelende melodie niet eens zo heel snel gaat. Ik kan niet zeggen dat dit het beste punk-album is wat ik ooit gehoord heb, maar het klinkt wel cool. Favorieten zijn "Bad Habit", "Genocide", "She" of eigenlijk alles behalve "Self Esteem" :-) *****

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Sat Jan 15 2022

5

Student times are the best

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Thu Jan 27 2022

5

Much nostalgia. Great album

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Fri Feb 11 2022

5

Flashbacks to cruising around in Ralph's Volvo and blasting this with the windows down. It may have been a cassette tape!! Album's still great.

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Fri Feb 18 2022

5

I'm not sure what more you can expect from pop-punk-rock. The hooks are catchy, the harmonies are solid, the energy is great and it absolute carries a dose of snarkiness and humor. Really enjoyed

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Fri Mar 11 2022

5

A dirtbag masterpiece The Offspring being one of the only groups to come out clean after that Woodstock 99 documentary

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Sat Mar 12 2022

5

Discazo de punk-rock con temas melódicos, guitarreros y muy bien producido.

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Fri Apr 15 2022

5

Turns out I’ve heard a few of these songs but never really heard of Offspring or this album. I missed a lot of the 90s due to drinking a lot and living in a trailer. This album was hot. Quality punk sound fast clean dirty rock really solid album I loved it.

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Fri Apr 29 2022

5

Great album. The melodies don't sound tired; the guitar parts are interesting, and the lyrics fit the vibe of the music.

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Mon May 16 2022

5

sonzeira, curto das antiga já

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Thu May 26 2022

5

Absolute classic!!!

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Thu Jun 02 2022

5

A long-standing favorite of mine, particularly my favorite pop-punk album. Just a great blast of energy, attitude, and catchiness.

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Fri Jun 10 2022

5

17 year old me is screaming right now. Nitro still kicks ass, Bad Habit is still morbid fun. I find a lot of the albums brightest songs are the non-singles. Something To Believe In, Killboy Powerhead, So Alone are all fun songs. The singles on the album I feel are pretty dusty and tired but there is still a lot of nostalgia driven love for this album.

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Mon Jul 04 2022

5

Ehkä eniten kuuntelemani levy kautta aikojen. No brainer

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Mon Jul 04 2022

5

Timanttia tai ainakin puhdasta kultaa. Tätä tuli jo penskana luukutettua 24/7 ja eipä ole mihinkään kulunut. Toimii edelleenkin.

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Fri Jul 08 2022

5

love it! bestselling independently released album of all time for a reason :)

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Thu Jul 14 2022

5

Classic album. Lots of bangers on this one.

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Tue Jul 19 2022

5

Great album 10/10

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Sun Jul 24 2022

5

SMASH! I particularly enjoyed that one, lets see what's next...

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Thu Aug 04 2022

5

The soundtrack to my early teenage years..

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Wed Aug 10 2022

5

ya ya ya ya ya

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Thu Aug 25 2022

5

So fucking good.

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Thu Sep 01 2022

5

One of my favorites growing up.

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Fri Sep 02 2022

5

Very nostalgic sound, love it a lot. this, Ixnay On The Hombre and Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace are great albums. the others have some good tracks but also a lot more complete misses (like Pretty Fly (For A White Guy))

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Fri Sep 09 2022

5

my mum use to listen to the offspring. i think she still does every now and then. I will always have this memory of when i was maybe 13 and was listening to You're gonna go far kid, and my mum said she liked the song. I looked at her with utter shock going 'you know The Offspring?' and she gave me this incredulous look and said 'Hazel I've been listening to them before you were even born'. I was born in 1998, I like to believe she was talking about this album.

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Tue Oct 04 2022

5

I like this album

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Thu Oct 06 2022

5

A classic

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Sun Oct 09 2022

5

Absolute classic. Top to bottom inspired, politically biting, aggressive, scream-along, and funny too.

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Wed Oct 12 2022

5

Quin fenomen místic o planetari va passar en les vides dels components de Green Day i Offspring al 1994 no el sabrem mai, però per la raó que sigui totes dues bandes van donar aquell any llum dos dels discos més importants de la década, van donar fi als anys del grunge i van encetar una nova etapa en la vida social i musical dels '90. Tot el que van fer abans i després està molt lluny del que van aconseguir aquell any. Això és més clar en el cas d'Offspring, els discos dels quals precedents i posteriors a 'Smash' queden tan per sota d'aquest que un es pregunta si realment pertanyen a la mateixa banda. 'Smash', però, és una obra perfecta del punk hardcore, ram de singles contundents i vibrants que van donar vida i èxit a tota una generació de bandes que vivien de la repetició del patró, de vegades amb certa gràcia, la majoria copiant amb insistència una mateixa idea. Aquest, però, és EL disc del génere i una obra per ser disfrutada sempre

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Wed Nov 16 2022

5

Great album, solid throughout with practically no filler. Every song is a banger

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Fri Dec 09 2022

5

Goes incredibly hard. The best 90s punk album - Dookie can eat a dick. Too bad it's the only good Offspring album. I have to give this a 5/5 or else "The Skeleton" shall deem me unworthy of my skin.

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Wed Dec 14 2022

5

Decent album

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Fri Dec 30 2022

5

Such solid music.

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Wed Mar 01 2023

5

I used to absolutely love the offspring when I was a teenager. First gig I ever went to....Bought an offspring hoodie which was about 10 sizes too big and wore it religiously! When I saw this come up I was a bit worried it wouldn't hold up to how I remembered it. It does though and it's massively nostalgic. Still think nearly every song is great. My favourites are probably smash, nitro, killboy powerhead, come out and play and gotta get away. Dexter dropped out of his PhD when they got big and only recently went back and finished it, which is fair play. I actually think Ignition and ixnay are slightly better albums than this, but it's close....I hope there are more on the list, but having this album was surprising enough. 6 out 5!

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Wed Mar 01 2023

5

Would give it more if I could

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Thu Mar 02 2023

5

I can't give this album anything less than 5*! It's the soundtrack to my early teens, I love every song and know the album inside out! Offspring are pioneers of nu-punk. All I need now is my skateboard and a quarter bottle of vodka! Simpler times!!

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Wed Mar 08 2023

5

Nostalgia bias but such a great punk album. Good energy, nice variety, incredibly catchy, and great unique vocals. Yeah there’s probably too many woahs but I love this album.

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Thu Mar 09 2023

5

Love love love

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Fri Mar 24 2023

5

90s mix van punkrock en grunge. Het mooie verhaal erachter vind ik wel dat dit op een klein independent label is uitgebracht, omdat die muziek helemaal niet zo populair was. Maar we weten allemaal wat er daarna in de jaren 90 is gebeurd. Harde gitaarmuziek stond ineens gewoon in de top40, was gewoon een soort van mainstream. En daarom krijgen we het nu ook in deze 1001 albums voorgeschoteld. De Offspring wordt vaak lacherig over gedaan (zanger kan niet zingen, 4 akkoorden, etc), maar dit is toch een puik album vol energie. Lekker, een echte 90s classic.

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Wed Mar 29 2023

5

Очень сочно, ярко, вкусно. Один из лучших панк альбомов

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Fri Apr 21 2023

5

How does my brain still know every word of this album, after not hearing it for yearssss, yet I forget how old I am?

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Mon May 22 2023

5

90s classic, hearing 'Bad Habit' was tops

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Sat May 27 2023

5

Sick album, gotta love The Offspring Saved tracks: Nitro(Youth Energy), Gotta Get Away, Come Out and Play, It’ll Be a Long Time, What Happened To You?

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