The Offspring - Americana
Updated: 3 days ago
A Sneak Peek...
On November 17, 1998, came out the album that brought us "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" which was one of the anthems of the late 90's when we were dancing in clubs on weekends. The album, released on Columbia Records, was produced by Dave Jerden, his second and last with the band, and recorded at Eldorado Recording Studios in Burbank, California, in the summer of 1998. The album cover - a blond boy on a swing with a mysterious tentacle reaching toward him - was designed by artist Frank Kozik.
This is the fifth album by the punk rock band The Offspring, and it was a huge success: it debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, the band's highest position on the chart, selling nearly 200,000 copies in its first week. To date it has sold more than ten million copies worldwide, making it the band's second best-selling album after "Smash", their breakthrough album released in 1994. The album, or rather the famous single we mentioned above even got them to perform at the famous Woodstock 99 Festival. It was followed by three more successful singles: "Why Don't You Get a Job?", "The Kids Aren't Alright" and "She's Got Issues", which received heavy airplay on MTV and radio.
According to band leader Dexter Holland this album is a band matriculation certificate, here they understood what the band's boundaries are, where they can play / change / experiment, here they have defined their DNA (as we like to say).
Although it was not pre-defined as a concept album and even today it is not exactly defined that way according to the band, but the album has a very clear central motif. Each song is basically a story of a character or event that exposes the ugly side of American society and actually criticizes it and shows it in a negative light.
Remember the memorable opening ???
Listen to the album on: Spotify, Apple Music
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