Oft-duplicated
formula wrecks
latest Offspring
‘Splinter’ offers the same
sounds from previous
Offspring albums despite
attempted style changes
By Ryan Nyburg
Senior Pulse Reporter
Punk rock, as a musical form, is
rather limited. After 25 years of lock
step beats, minimalist chord pro
gressions and endlessly aggressive
vocals, it has come to the point that
if a punk band is not consistendy in
R IEVIE W their music.
-- The Off
ed out being just a tad more creative
than the glut of pop-punk bands
that infected radio in the late 1990s.
Quick, catchy tunes with funny
lyrics have been a punk mainstay
since the Ramones, and the Off
spring made it their own by adding
a healthy ska influence to the equa
tion. But after a couple multi-plat
inum selling albums, the band
seemed to pick a format and settle
with it. 1998's "Americana" album
was an uneven mix of catchy, radio
friendly pop and angst-ridden dirges
about emotional pain.
"Conspiracy of One," released in
2000, offered more of the same, and
now last month's "Splinter" brings it
all back again, merely copying the
same old riffs and the same old
ideas. While repeating yourself is
hardly a sin in the music biz, prob
lems do arise when each copy just
becomes a paler version of the origi
nal. "Splinter" is about as pale as it
gets, bringing hardly anything new
to the mix.
The opening track, "Neocon," sets
the tone for the rest of the album. A
minute and a half of vague state
ments that never add up to a pur
pose, the song finishes before it ever
really begins. The rest of the album
runs at about the same level. What
isn't anthemic angst-parades is hu
morless frat rock like "The Worst
Hangover Ever" (which isn't as fun
ny as it sounds). The band is at its
most pathetic when it makes at
tempts at street cred, such as "Da
ventive then
there is no
reason to
care about
spring start
Hui," an ode to a Hawaiian surf
brotherhood. The song falls flat, not
even meeting punk's low standards
of originality.
To their credit, the band does at
tempt some stylistic changes, such
as the mostly acoustic "Spare Me
the Details." But the problem with
acoustic music is that more focus is
put on the lyrics and in this case the
band finds itself once again lacking.
Despite the sub-Steve Miller
rhyming schemes ("time" and
"mind," "eyes" and "knife"), the
story of a guy whose girlfriend
cheats on him lacks both a point
and a purpose, and the whole thing
seems like an attempt to recreate
their own damaged relationship
classic "Self Esteem."
Probably the only worthwhile
song on the album is also the first
single, the ultra catchy "Hit That."
With its simplistic Devo-style syn
thesizer riff, it shows the band tak
ing a few steps in a different direc
tion. But the next track, "Race
Against Myself," jettisons any hope
that the Offspring will again be
come interesting. That song is
merely indicative of the problems
on so many of the songs on "Splin
ter." The lyrics run through all the
usual depressing cliches, "I've had
all I can stand," etc. But the angst is
never directed at anything in partic
ular and singer Dexter Holland
seems to be depressed for no rea
son. That doesn't require a song, it
requires Prozac.
There has long been talk, mostly
among punk rock purists, who tend
to be the worst sort of musical fas
cists anyway, that the Offspring
have sold out and have begun pan
dering to the market. It's difficult to
say if this is really true, since the
band did some of their most inven
tive work while still selling mil
lions. They've always been a pop
band at the core. But the difference
now is that each song feels ready
for a demographic, and though the
band has grown up, their music is
still attempting to work for the
same age group. Now it has
stopped feeling honest and one day
people will stop listening. If their
next album is as stale as this one,
that day may not be far off.
Contact the senior pulse reporter
at ryannyburg@dailyemerald.com.
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