Binding: Audio CD EAN: 0045778643226 Label: Epitaph / Ada Manufacturer: Epitaph / Ada Number Of Discs: 1 Publisher: Epitaph / Ada Release Date: April 15, 1994 Sales Rank: 7262 Studio: Epitaph / Ada
Album Description: Smash is a generous helping of guitar power-pop. The delightful Middle-Eastern surf guitar on 'Come Out And Play' hides harsh sentiments in poppy guitar riffs. Singer Dexter Holland mocks the school systems that think the solution to school violence is to 'keep them separated,' to segregate rather than educate the kids about the dangers of carrying guns. As Holland advises his fans, 'Hey pay no mind/If you're under eighteen you won't be doing any time.' Offspring's power is in writing anthemic guitar rock that effortlessly slips from genre to genre. From the humorous ska-flavored 'What Happened To You?' to the sing-along guitar riff in 'No Self Esteem,'.
Amazon.com essential recording: Call them the Nine Inch Nails of punk. Like NIN, the Offspring preserve the essential ingredients of their chosen genre--guitars grinding out three chords, shouted vocals, and plenty of vitriol--and layer them over a melodic base that packs considerable popular appeal. The singles from Smash, the Offspring's breakthrough album, still receive considerable radio airplay: 'Gotta Get Away,' 'Come Out and Play,' and 'Self Esteem.' With these and Smash's 11 other tracks, the band chronicles the adolescent experience with clarity and surprisingly incisive wit. That pretty much describes all of their albums, but this is the one to get. It's got more shape than their earlier material and isn't as disturbingly poppy as their more recent recordings; it's the perfect blend of riffs and rage. --Genevieve Williams
Amazon.com: Yes, they (along with Green Day) finally brought skate-rock into the world of John Q. Mallrat, but the Offspring were hardly spring chickens at the time of this breakthrough album's release. They'd been slogging away since 1987, a span that allowed them to amass all the clever tricks showcased here, most notably the Latino-rap/moshpit-riff mega-hit 'Come Out and Play.' Just about every track on the disc (the band's third, if you were counting) keeps that careful balance between aggression and accessibility, from the surf-punk self- help rant of 'Self-Esteem' to the airy ska-pop of 'What Happened to You?' If Green Day are the '90s punk equivalent of the Beatles, and Rancid its Rolling Stones, the Offspring might be its Monkees--remembered for nothing more important than simple, indelible pop. --David Sprague
Digital Life Reviews
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - A classic
This album should never receiver anything less than 5 stars and people who score it less are those that just go against the grain for the sake of doing it.
Rating: - Fairly Average Album with some wonderful highlights.
I don't know how this stands today, but Smash was at one point the highest selling indie album of all time, and it possibly deserves that title for one song only - "Self-Esteem". A great song that every individual worth their salt should either know or check-out. The rest of the album though is rather average, now that doesn't mean it's bad, it's just not very good, the majority feeling like middle school rock. Sure, being juvenile was kind of the point, stay simple, not be pretentious, right? Well, that simplicity somehow manages to be pretentious. Overall though, Smash is the Offspring's greatest album, after this the band simply tried way too hard to repeat the formula here over and over again without any decent results or ever being able to recapture the obvious potential.
Rating: - Great album ... avoid the remaster though
If you know anything about sound and like good sound... avoid the 2008 remaster of this classic album at all costs and buy the 1994 issue instead. Especially if you're new to the Offspring, before the 2008 remaster ends up superseding the original 1994 master and this new master is all you are able to purchase. Why you ask? Because the 2008 remaster is a casualty of the loudness war... and if those words ring a bell to you it's because 2008 is the year the loudness war finally broke through into the mainstream thanks to the horrible mastering on Metallica's million selling disc "Death Magnetic". If you still don't know what the hell i am talking about visit Wikipedia and search "loudness war" and that should fill you in.
The 2008 remaster fixes some issues up with the original 1994 master and generally makes everything sound more crisp and nice like late 90's Offspring albums but the songs are brick ... Read More
Rating: - Ready for take off
Offspring caught everyone by surprise with just how good this album was. It took off, quite literally blowing many other bands out of the way to get at the charts in numerous territories and it's easy to see why.
Firstly the band were one of the earliest to use the pop-punk schtick. And given there was some real abrasiveness in their wattage and Dexter Holland actually had a bit of the ol' nasal twang happening you sort of believed it. As opposed to Blink 182 (the Danger Danger of their generation).
Secondly the thing was propelled by the buoyant yet full bodied blasts of singles such as Come Out And Play which speaks at a simple yet highly effective level to the fire in the belly without totally submerging it's intelligence to suck up to the punter, the stupidity of much of the behaviour being sung about isn't glossed over. As for Self Esteem, this is an interesting piece of introspection ... Read More
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- A classic
- Fairly Average Album with some wonderful highlights.
- Ready for take off
