One year ago in 2023, The Offspring’s main vocalist, Dexter Holland excitedly announced they were “back in the studio.”
With that, many fans, including me, have been eagerly awaiting the day they announce their new project. Finally on Oct. 11, 2024, they dropped their new album, “Supercharged” and of course, opinions were formed.
The American punk band, “The Offspring” recently released their 11th studio album, “Supercharged,” coming back with both an old and new school touch. Also marking their 30th anniversary of the release of “Smash”, the band’s 6x platinum selling record. The album was produced by Bob Rock, who has worked with the band on its previous last three studio albums.
Overall there has been a mix of good and bad reviews on this most recent album. Some say this album was an improvement compared to their last released studio album “Let the bad times roll,” while others say the album was a let down.
The first song in this album, being one of the most liked by fans is called “Looking out for #1.”
The song immediately presents us with melodic chimes of bells, but then leads up to the song sounding like the classic Offspring sound we all know, those trademark rocking guitar riffs and the upbeat vocals of frontman Dexter Holland leading the track from start to finish.
The drumming in the song also caught my attention by how well it was played. The drummer, Brandon Pentzborn captures the essence of the band really well despite being somewhat new to the band. Already hearing this song it got me hooked with their catchy melody making me want to hear more.
In the whole album you can hear the classic loud and punk rock style in the songs.
“Light It Up” ended up being one of my favorite songs in this album.
This song contained lots of energy and passion, and comparing it to the other songs the energy has only grown stronger. The fast past palm muting brings out the energy of the song, muting the strings he plays with his palm.
When they shared their new single, “Light It Up,” from their upcoming album the lead vocalist in the band, Dexter Holland commented, “in this song the character is fed up. He’s had enough, and he’s gonna light it up. That’s the vibe of “light it up”, it talks about how he’s fed up and has had enough and wants to do something about it.”
The song is about letting out your aggression, which is one thing I really enjoyed about this particular song because the emotions in this song are relatable and I can understand on a deeper level.
The whole album really wasn’t anything special and it didn’t stand out to me, it wasn’t more than what I expected and it wasn’t anything less.
It wasn’t awful nor amazing. It was somewhere in the middle.
There were some songs more enjoyable than others, displaying a mix of strong and weak points. One of the songs “Come To Brazil” had more beats and heavy metal rhythm to it, while another song, “ Make It All Right” just didn’t sound right, like it’s missing the Offsprings traditional flow.
Overall I felt “Supercharged” was a decent album by The Offspring.
