The Offspring - Days Go By

After 20+ years of music the Offspring take a moment to look to the past for inspiration for the future.

Admittedly, my liking of the Offspring has declined sharply over the past ten years. This would of course explain why I am about a year late checking out Days Go By. With their last effort, Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace, the band seemed uninspired and unsure of what direction to take, resulting in a fairly mediocre, loose knit collection of songs that even by their current standards was kind of bland.

Not to say that this record is on par with anything from their golden years but collectively its probably their most solid effort since 2000's Conspiracy Of One. There is some semblance of the signature sound we all know and love, but not without some caveats, to which, by now, we are all expecting anyway.

In typical post 90s Offspring fashion you get the good (The Future Is Now) the bad (I Wanna Secret Family...) and the ugly. (Cruisin' California...) However, despite following their typical formulaic musical directions the album ends up flowing as well as you could expect for the Offspring at this point in their career.

Days Go By starts promising with the first two tracks but quickly hits a bump with the album's title track which seemingly acts as the band's answer to the Foo Fighters song Times Like These. It fits well with the conceptual self reflective theme of the album, but its aforementioned musical similarity is pretty off putting.

Just as you are about to write the album off, it regains its momentum with Turning Into You and Hurting As One, which has a bit of that vintage Offspring sound, almost like something they would have recorded around Ixnay or Americana.

At the half way mark comes the cringe worthy novelty songs we all knew were coming. Cruisin' California, which sounds like a song they wrote for Rebecca Black and then just decided to keep for themselves. OC Guns is almost just as awful and just as forgettable. Of course, the Offspring was gracious enough not to hit us with both of these tracks back to back but instead they serve as book ends for the token ballad-ish song of the album, All I Have Left Is You. Its not terrible, but surely its not Gone Away either, but it marginally beats out past drivel like Kristy Are You Doing Okay?

Next up, either because they are running out of ideas, or simply to add to the nostalgic introspective feel of the record, is a rerecorded version of Dirty Magic from their 1992 album Ignition. I was apprehensive of the idea at first but after a few listens the reworking of the song isn't bad. It is much slicker, a bit less raw but it serves as an interesting touch, and in fairness it could have very well replaced a potentially bad new song or conversely they could have just butchered it. But they didn't.

I Wanna Secret Family (With You) ends up serving as a more low key novelty song but falls short of being anything memorable. While you get a sense it could have almost been a decent song, it just doesn't hold up with the albums better tracks. The Offspring can do tongue-in-cheek songs well at times, but in this case it seems like they put little effort in to it.

The album does wrap things up on a better note, Dividing By Zero again takes us back to a more familiar sound scape and Slim Pickens... despite being a more of a guilty pleasure, is an effective closer.

With the band getting older, they definitely acknowledge the passing of time and reflecting upon past endeavors with this album. While I know its frivolous to hold my breath for another Smash or even Ixnay it was refreshing to hear a conscious effort to somewhat revisit their past.