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The Offspring – Supercharged Review
Image Credit: Concord Records
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This review is for a band that I have been a fan of dating back to the release of Americana, and in my teen years, I went back to explore Ignition, Smash, and Ixnay on the Hombre. Over the past two decades their releases have been sporadic and all over the place in terms of their quality. I speak of The Offspring and the release of their newest album (and first in three years) with Supercharged (Or SUPERCHARGED, if you feel, like, SUPER).
Is this the album that takes them back to their prime Pop Punk stardom, or is it another dud in the linage of their last release? Let’s find out!
The Offspring – Supercharged (also stylized as SUPERCHARGED)
Release Date – October 11, 2024
Genre: Pop Punk/Punk Rock/Alt Rock
Band Lineup:
Dexter Holland – Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, bass, keyboards
Kevin “Noodles” Wasserman – Lead Guitar
Todd Morse – Bass
Brandon Pertzborn – Drums (Tracks 2, 3, 6, 10)
Josh Freese – Drums (Tracks 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9)
Track Listing:
1. “Looking Out For #1” (3:16)
2. “Light It Up” (2:52)
3. “The Fall Guy” (2:34)
4. “Make It All Right” (3:34)
5. “Ok, But This is The Last Time” (3:23)
6. “Truth In Fiction” (2:00)
7. “Come To Brazil” (4:19)
8. “Get Some” (2:57)
9. “Hanging By A Thread” (3:26)
10. “You Can’t Get There From Here” (3:54)
When people talk about the rise of Pop Punk in the 90’s, the discussion is often centered around the likes of Green Day, NOFX, and Rancid. However, The Offspring deserve to be mentioned in this conversation as well, and if time has taught us anything, it is that the band can and will preserve through different musical landscapes and changes in popularity. This also means that, no matter what the fans think about their output since, say, the year 2000, that they’re still going to do something wrong if not for trying.
The band’s 11th studio album (and third overall since the release of Days Gone By in 2012), Supercharged lives up to its name in some instances. Something that the band could always do, no matter who was in the rhythm section supporting Holland and Wasserman, is knock out that vintage Pop Punk/Punk Rock that put them on the map in the first place. In that respect, songs like “Light It Up,” “The Fall Guy” and “Truth In Fiction” hit the sweet spot for the longtime fan looking for that return to glory. If you listen to these trio of songs, you might hear some callbacks (whether intentional or otherwise), as there seems to be a strong “Be a Long Time” vibe to “Light It Up”, and I sense a strong call back to the “Kids Aren’t Alright” in the structure to “The Fall Guy”. “Hanging By a Thread” is also a particularly good song that strikes the near-perfect balance of pop punk and alt rock that the band has been known for over the past quarter century or so.
Unfortunately, the band simply cannot kick the bad habits of their previous album Let the Bad Times Roll entirely, as songs like “Make it All Right,” “Ok, But This is the Last time,” and “Get Some” lie somewhere between bad and hilariously bad. “Get Some” tries to strike a delicate balance between radio rock and party popping anthem with the WHOOP WHOOP proclamation during the chorus, and “Make it All Right” makes “Bumpin in My Trunk” sound like “Come Out and Play” in comparison.
But there is another issue with this album and the way it was overseen, and that is in the production. To put it simply, this is a Bob Rock produced album, but in more succulent terms, the production on a lot of songs sounds like they were recorded in a barn, and for some reason, “Looking Out For #1” is so bad that Holland sounds like he has the microphone up his nose on the verses. And a song like “Come to Brazil” might have been good, what with its heavy metal riffage in the intro and the use of the OLE chants later in the song, but the production makes it sound like they are in a broom closet.
As has been the case for the past two decades, there has been changes within the band’s lineup again. Todd Morse, previously the guitarist for H2O, has been enlisted to play bass, while Brandon Pertzborn, who has drummed with the likes of Black Flag, Marilyn Manson, Suicidal Tendencies, and Doyle, was brought in to play some of the drums. The rest of the tracks were managed by Josh Freese, who I swear has drummed for every band in existence at least one time.
For the first time in the band’s long and storied career, they managed to release an album with only ten songs, which means that, unlike previous releases, we’re not subjected to too much excess, and the album is over in 32:15. All of this to say that, while I enjoy this album more than I did Let the Bad Times Roll, it still is not emblematic of what the band can still do, even 35 years into their storied career. And while the production does bear a lot of the blame for this album’s few shortcomings, the band’s attempt to take calculated risks sometimes come up inundated and miss the mark.
Recommended Tracks: “Light It Up,” “The Fall Guy,” “Truth in Fiction,” and “Hanging by a Thread.”
