Album Review: Let the Bad Times Roll by The Offspring
By: Rui Alves
Tags: Music Business, Culture, Music, Rock, Review

Album Review: Let the Bad Times Roll by The Offspring

Let the Bad Times Roll Artwork | The Offspring | Concord Records

The Offspring released their tenth album, Let the Bad Times Roll, on April 16, 2021. This is the band’s first studio album in nearly ten years since the release of Days Go By (2012), and it shows how they’ve come a long way from their debut with The Offspring (1989).

Bob Rock was in charge of production. He is renowned for his work with Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Aerosmith, and Bon Jovi. Hence, you will notice his influence in The Offspring sound. It’s known how the band started recording new material for the album with Bob Rock as early as the summer of 2013.

The band delayed the release for a while; we recall how they had promised a new album for 2018, with the founding members stating they were recording it. On February 23, 2019, Noodles confirmed that The Offspring had finalized the recordings on his Instagram account.

“The album is done. Working on getting it to the fans now. Stay tuned!”

Then, in March, Holland confirmed how they were planning for a 2019 release. Finally, on February 8, 2021, Dexter and Noodles posted a video ensuring they had finished it.

Track by track analysis

The Offspring continue to deliver fast-paced songs, yet we notice that melody is gaining predominance over the band's punk side. Aiming at proving me wrong, the band starts with a punk rock-style track,” This Is Not Utopia.” The overall composition is catchy, and the chorus is punchy enough to turn this song into an earworm.

Video by The Offspring| UMG & Concord Records

Then comes the title track and second single, “Let the Bad Times Roll,” and the melody sets in a more Sunday afternoon radio station type of tune, proving that this is an album with something for everyone and aimed at the masses.

One of the best moments of the album comes from the sequence “Behind Your Walls” and “Army of One.” Melody meets stamina to deliver frantic tracks that speed through our eardrums, trying to blow our minds even if never really getting there in the end.

Listening to the drumroll and the bass lines, I like “Beaking These Bones” instruments-wise; however, the lyrics don’t quite follow the global catchiness of the track. The previously released single “Coming for You” is a different matter. Everything falls into place perfectly, and it mingles its rhythmic section with lead guitar and vocals in an enticing way.

Then comes the surprise factor with the third single, “We Never Have Sex Anymore,” a more relaxed, fun track that recalls the good old days of Ixnay on the Hombre or Smash, followed by the instrumental.

In the “Hall of the Mountain King,” a piece of orchestral music composed by Edvard Grieg in 1875 as incidental music from Henrik Ibsen’s 1867 play Peer Gynt. You will recognize the tunes as this classic piece is used in “Petey’s King of France,” the villain song featured in the film Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, and “Hair Up” from Dreamworks’ 2016 animated film Trolls.

Afterward, the album pumps up the nitro and gears up for two rapid sequence bursts with “The Opioid Diaries” and ”Hassan Chop.” If the first track introduces some rhythmic change along the way, the latter goes full throttle until the end.

A special note of praise for the piano version of the 1997' classic “Gone Away Requiem.” Until now, we had only heard it live, but I must confess this is, in my opinion, one of the best moments of the album.

Finally, The Offspring wrap up the album with a brief and ethereal “Lullaby” that nicely follows the same tone of “Gone Away Requiem.”

Video by The Offspring| UMG & Concord Records

Final thoughts

The Offspring are back on track with Let the Bad Times Roll, and after a long hiatus, they managed to release one of the best pop-punk albums I’ve heard during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The cover artwork is stunning, and the music inside is catchy and will stick for a while in my mind. Yet, we can’t forget it took them nine years to do it. Thus, dear Dexter, please don’t make me wait another decade, or else I don’t know if my arthritis will let me jump to the sound of the new songs. Well done, guys!