This isn't really a review so much as it is a recap of one of my favorite albums ever made. The album came out in a time where I was the age that I believe people develop the taste for music that they are going to enjoy for the rest of their lives. I strongly believe that adage is true - it certainly is for me.
There are only a few bands that are credited with the revival of popularity of punk rock and Rancid is one of them. The others are likely Bad Religion, Green Day, and The Offspring. I have problems with 2 of these bands and really love the other two.
Unlike the others, Rancid has a strong ska presence in their music minus the horns for the most part. I find ska less appealing because of the brass section (no offense to all you trombone players out there.) With the release of this album, which had 3 MTV videos, Rancid was walking a dangerous line of being considered "sellouts" and ostracizing their long-held fanbase. They did manage to avoid the moniker and they are one of the few popular punk acts during that time to manage this.
I would imagine that the bands that did "sell out" don't regret doing so because that normally just meant they were going to make more money. Take Green Day for example: They are largely considered the biggest sellouts of the entire punk genre, but they make a lot more money than the other guys so I would imagine they are pretty OK with the label.
Rancid has fantastic harmonies in their songs akin to NOFX despite the fact that the lead singer, Tim Armstrong, is not a good singer at all. He is helped out quite a lot by the 2 backup singers who actually have much more traditionally great singing voices - but if they sang lead it wouldn't be very punk-rock now would it? He has a unique rasp to his voice that suits the genre perfectly. The lyrics tend to not be stupid either, if you know what i mean.
One of the other benefits of ...and Out Come the Wolves is that it has 19 tracks on it. This was extremely rare back in the days when it seemed record companies were trying to release as few songs as possible per album. Nearly all the songs on this album are very good too. I have listened to this no less than a thousand times and it stays interesting to me.
The most widespread songs on the album are "Time Bomb," "Roots Radicals," and "Ruby Soho." The last song is the one that I think most people would be most familiar with and I still love this song. It's just so memorable.
Well I hope i have piqued your interest. I piqued my own. Time to dig into the archives and find all my 90's punk albums. :)
Two decades ago, the mainstream was dabbling in punk rock thanks to bands like Green Day and The Offspring.
Meanwhile, just to the left of the mainstream, there were watershed moments like Punk In Drublic from NOFX and Bad Religion's Stranger Than Fiction. Now the dust has settled and only the real classics remain. Classics like Rancid's ...And Out Come The Wolves: the perfect intersection of Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederiksen's songwriting peak, coinciding with a music industry that gave a shit about punk rock again. The result is 19 tracks (plus two new bonus songs for this anniversary reissue) that hold up higher, and hit harder than ever.
Great post @gooddream and sorry i was not well for the past few days so not seen much of your posts but this one is great i do love rock music although i have not heard about this band up till now but i'll search for them on youtube as you speak so highly of them, I leave music too but mostly jazz and classic and elctro but i do listen to band like this, once again great post i told you before also i like the way you describe and thing whether movie or posts like this one.
Thanks buddy! I appreciate it.
This is so good, meaning you have great taste in music, though old songs do make a difference
19 tracks! Omg
This is so unusual, many artist would do that even today not to talk of 90s?
It's been quite sometime now since i saw you post about a band, am fuessing is because you had lots of travelling to do, anyway is true that at certain age some songs get stucked with you for life, i can personally relate, is funny how those that try to stay on the good path don't usually earn as much the others
That is quite some energy put to their song and not really a good singer but nice videos
Probably the best ska/punk album. Not a genre i am huge on. I like 2 tone or Jamaican ska but not so much white American ska I like Rancid though.
I'm glad you are back with your usual pace here. Did you come back from vietnam?
I love your post every day you learn something new here, always after reading your post I end up listening to the music on youtube almost all afternoon haha, good music for my ears, greeting