Album Details

• Artist: The Offspring
• Album: Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace
• Label: Sony / BMG
• Year of Release: 2008
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: sinist3r-punk on 2008-12-09

Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace is a long over due album for the Offspring. The preverbial sequel to Splinter, the Offspring carry over much of the same qualities that made Splinter so successful. The tempo is kept much the same, even sped up a little bit in some songs. This is the perfect sound that the Offspring have been trying to harness for so many years. ever since their goofy hit cd "Smash", that had first given the Offspring the taste of success, Dexter and company have been experimenting with all sorts of different sounds to try and figure out what best defined them. A glisten of hope was found in 2003 when Splinter was formulated. The sound was there. The energy was slowly being harnessed. All that was left was the time to tweak the sound. In 2005 came their greatest hits. giving the fans something to enjoy while they worked on Rise and Fall.

Everything must have fallen into place when they were recording, because what became of 5 years of tedious work was a near masterpiece that proved an excellent successor to Splinter. The second single from this album "Your Gonna Go Far, Kid" perfectly summarizes what the album is composed of. It's fast, it's catchy, and it's something new! Definitely a favorite song for me from the Offspring. A shocker on this album would have to be "A Lot Like Me". It is considerably slower than most of their previous songs. Also, the addition of the piano is somewhat of a surprise, but it fits perfectly. "A Lot Like Me" has that edgy and new feel. That's really the premise of the album. Trying to make each song new and edgy, while still having that special something that made people fall in love with the Offspring in the first place. "Rise and Fall" has that kind of early Green Day sound, but the Offspring quickly make it their own with Dexter's unmistakable voice and Pete Parada's punky drums. "Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?" is a fantastic acoustic song with some good bell play. "Stuff Is Messed Up" is a good tempo song that you crank up when your driving down the highway doing 70. Great "sing a long" lyrics make it an instant classic. "Trust In You" is perhaps the driving nail in the coffin for the album. It's almost like Dexter took "Lightning Rod" from the album Splinter and completely revamped it to just put it over the punk edge. 

The one tiny little thing about this album that is keeping it from a 5 is the song "Fix You". It's like an eerie cross between My Chemical Romance and an early Green Day song. I mean, the lyrics are actually pretty entertaining, but it kind of dampers the speediness of all the other songs. The song placement is good though, 2nd from the end, so it doesnt impact the album that much. It's not like the Offspring at all to put a song like that on such a fantastic album, so I don't put them at fault. It seems more like a producer's choice.

All in all, this is the best Offspring album to date. It captures the sound and the attitude perfectly. No one else in market sounds like the Offspring and I don't think anyone ever will. The direction of the album is very clear, and frankly, Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace couldn't have come at a better time. the only question remaining now is, where can they go from here?

User Reviews and Comments

on 2009-06-24 KLee Said:

It really is no fun writing a review when youve said the good stuff already :-P
Rating: 10/10