On “Ixnay on the Hombre”, The Offspring had taken a couple of leaps out of their comfort zone, ones that not only allowed them to grow out of that pure post-punk style that had graced their previous album and given them a road also into the alt rock sound that bands were beginning to utilise. While some fans were disappointed, probably because they were looking for a “Smash 2” rather than the next development of an Offspring album, that album gave the band more scope to spread their wings.
Dexter Holland, who is the primary composer for the band, was quoted in Rolling Stone in August 1998, "I wanted to write a record that wasn't a radical departure from what we've done before. I feel like we have managed to change stuff up from “Ignition” to “Smash” to “Ixnay”. We're in a place where we more or less set the boundaries where we can do a lot of stuff without having to stretch it out farther”.
A little over a week before this album was released, the band had put out their first single, “Pretty Fly for a White Guy”. Along with the catchiness of the track, the music video also caught the attention of the music loving world, and was soon number one in a dozen countries around the world, and drove the interest in the band’s new album to new highs. Given the goofiness of the video yet the biting commentary of the lyrics, it couldn't’ have been a better lead in for an album that was about to storm the charts on the back of this success.
What comes across the most on “Americana” is that even though the subject matter being sung about is not always the most uplifting or positive or happy, the music and the way the songs are sung makes them entertaining and not morose. Because if you delve deeper into the lyrics of “Have You Ever” and “The Kids Aren’t Alright”, these songs in particular could be extremely dark and depressing. Given a whole different mood by the music they could be mood killers – terrific commentary on the world as the band and Dexter in particular sees through their eyes, but not as wonderfully embracing as they are. The dark matter that the songs address could have been accompanied by moody long drawn-out music, harping on the negative aspects of the lyrics and while perhaps still being excellent songs, just leaving the listener in a depressed or even angry mood.
But when you listen to “Americana”, you don’t come away in that way at all. That wonderful punk-influenced hard paced track style that comes across so perfectly with “Have You Ever”, “Staring at the Sun”, “The Kids Aren’t Alright” and “The End of the Line” in particular is what becomes the main focus of the mood of the track rather than the lyrical content, until they merge and become one, and the songs become eminently enjoyable. Classic even. A perfect amalgamation of lyric topicality and angsty music.
“The Kids Aren’t Alright” in particular is arguably the band’s masterpiece and is relatable to just about everyone in life. The dreams of youth, locked in your safe world that is your neighbourhood, and then going back years later to discover what everyone had become and finding that it isn’t all peaches and cream, and that life outside of the days of high school become a different challenge than you would ever have expected. This could have been a depressing song, and if you just read the lyrics, it is a sad story. But put it with the terrific guitar riff, and the fast pace, and the wonderful vocals from Holland who gives enough emotion to make it clear it isn’t a happy story, but keeps it up-tempo and jumping to make you forget that and just enjoy the song, is pretty special. Holland was quoted as saying that the song was inspired and derived by a trip back to his hometown, where “The neighbourhood looks like Happy Days, but it’s really Twin Peaks”. And the song shines a light on that. You grow up hoping you and your friends are going to have a successful and happy life, but reality doesn’t always go that way.
Listening to the album, it is clear that it has become a social statement on the world as the band saw it, and in particular America, thus the title of the album. Each song is almost its own self-contained short story in a book of short stories that becomes the album. “Why Don’t You Get a Job?” and “She’s Got Issues” are pointed in their barbs but with that tinge of humour that keeps them light. On the other hand, the opening of “Have You Ever” and “Staring at the Sun” are shooting straight from the hip, firing shots at society and the way it breaks down at the slightest sign of people standing up for their rights. “Walla Walla” talks about not only crime being punished by being sent to jail, but the lax convictions that just encourage the same people to do the same crime over and over again without being made to truly pay for it. “The End of the Line” and “No Brakes” both deal with the onset of death in different ways. And the title track riles against middle class America and form it has taken. And of course there is the major single hit from the album, “Pretty Fly for a White Guy”, which pokes fun at the teens and twenties who will do anything for what they see as popularity, not realising that it is ridicule they are receiving instead.
I loved “Ixnay on the Hombre” when it was released. One of the perfect albums for me at that time of my life. It was played to death, and it was the angst and segregated anger of that album that made it so perfect for me. So when “Americana” was released, and my life had changed again (this time for the better) I did wonder if I would find the same things at that point of my life as I had with that previous album. The answer indeed was a resounding yes. Because by then I was in my late 20’s, and was seeing more and being affected more by what was happening around me, and seeing and feeling the influences of things like lifestyle and political ramifications and the changes in people's attitudes to life and the surrounding areas where I was living at the time. Yes, sure, I was becoming more adamant and steadfast in my own thoughts, and was happy to start publicising that more than I had. And “Americana” spoke to me in that way through the lyrics. I was trying to work out just what the world was trying to do, and I was then trying to work out WHY it was doing what it was. And most of what The Offspring threw at me through their lyrics on this album was the same as what I was thinking on all of those subjects. So yes “Americana” spoke to me.
But more than that, the music perfectly framed those songs, and the lyrics they contained. The band framed a song so that you could sing it with anger and frustration in your voice, but it wasn’t the way the band actually performed it. It was just the way I interpreted it and allowed how I felt to come through in the enjoyment of the songs. They also framed a song so you could be emotional about the content and allow that to come through in how you heard and sang the song, but again it wasn’t the way it was performed, it just allowed your interpretation of what you were feeling to come through. And to me, that has always been the genius of the album. This is, for all intents and purposes, mostly a punk rock album, and that inspiration that is the fast paced hard clocking songs is what makes The Offspring at their best. Sure, there is the Latino flavoured comedy infused big selling single, and the very Beatles-ish style of their second single (listen to “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da" and then “Why Don’t You Get a Job” and you’ll hear what I mean), but mostly this is punk inspired rock with lyrics that shake their fist at authority and the state of the world, and that’s why it was so good when it was released, and still so relevant in the modern day. And why The Offspring are still so necessary.
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