Days Go By Appreciation Thread!

[Sara MZK]

Yeah, I'd just say that some of the songs sound a bit riseagainst-ish. But I love the fact that the record is more like Rise Against in style and much further from Green Day this time.

Well, Rise Against were hardly pioneers of that style of punk, so they have elements of other band's styles in their music. And they're certainly not as diverse, or creative as The Offspring. There's absolutely nothing on the new album that's a carbon copy of any Rise Against song, or even riff, so the comparisons are a bit lost on me really...

[The Search Button]

The Spanish touch, the middle eastern riffs, the fast paced tempo, the-tongue-in-cheek, the catchy melodies and the sweet backing vocals.

This album has every facet of The Offspring.

[Eskimo]

This Rise Against shiz really needs to stop. I mean, really?

Which bands have Rise Against pretty clearly been influenced by? Bad Religion and The Offspring would be riiiiggghhht up there on that list.

So the guys sounding like Rise Against, who...sound like them, isn't exactly some giant fuckin' revelation.

Lolz, James Cameron totally ripped off Halo with the production design of Avatar, too. 'Cause, you know, Aliens never happened or anything.

Same exact fuckin' thing. It sounds like an Offspring song. Just because Rise Against have been a pretty popular band the last couple of years doesn't exactly turn the tables on the relationship between the two. They sound like a 90's California third-wave punkrock band. Yeah, Offspring never did that or anything.

On another note, I can't wait to get the disc and listen to it on something better than shitty PC speakers. Headphones just aren't the same.

[Rooster]

Hey don't worry man, some of us only said that Turning Into You and Ready to Fall sound a bit similar, not the same. I probably like Turning Into You more. They sound similar in the way "oh, this reminds me of that a bit", not "z0mg they stole there song". Similar, but not the same. But it's cool, as I said many times, there are a lot of songs in music history that sound similar to one another, and people are still fine with it, and so it should be in this case

Brace yourselves though, I smell ripoff accusations coming, just like the last time when RAFRAG came out...




By the way, people on sputnikmusic (checked their first review just out of curiosity) don't seem to appreciate the album as much (what else can you expect from sputnik anyway ). Not that I care, I have my own opinion about the album which they can't change. But as of now the album seems to be vastly underrated, though I suspect the low ratings are due to trolls, and overall rating should grow in time...

[Count Orlok]

Okay, let's start off like this:

I'm really really happy that the album turned out better than i expected.

In the recent four years since RAFRAG (which i love), The Offspring has gone down from my # one favourite band to one of my favourite bands, and my musical taste evolved from listening exclusively to punk and rock to kinda every genre of music, while retaining a specifially soft spot for punk.

The two singles for Days Go By, in contrast to the first two RAFRAG-singles, made me worry that maybe, for the first time since my Offspring-fandom, I might be let down by a new release of them. Days Go By didn't click as a standalone-track, and I still don't consider it to be the most lucky choice for a lead single after four years of silence. Cruising California further lowered my expectations for the album. Before yesterday, I knew 1/6 of Days Go By, which wasn't a too pleasant 1/6.

Now, yesterday, after discovering the Rolling-Stone-link @ this bbs, I drove home from work as fast as I could, because even with two more or less weak singles, I can't be any other thing than excited when The Offspring releases new material. So here we go:

The midtempo punk/rock-song The Future Is Now demonstrates right from the start, that Days Go By will be filled with more energy than I'd have thought. A really strong opener, but I have to admit, that I liked Half-Truism a little bit more. 9/10

Secrets From The Underground blew me away. It's such a fast, powerful and at the same time catchy punk-tune (the chorus!), that shows The Offspring at their best! I always liked the last #2s, but this beats even Trust In You and The Noose. -> 10/10

Days Go By works in the album context better than on it's own, and I have to admit that I like the optimistic atmosphere in here. It's also very catchy, but more of a polished midtempo-Rock-song. Still, nice track 8/10

The fourth Track, Turning Into You instantly got one of my favourites. It has some decent Emo/Post-Hardcore-vibe in my opinion, which is cool with me, cause I love these genres. Again: Much energy, anger, but also a very interesting drum loop and an infectious guitar-rhythm. And a catchy as hell chorus. 10/10

Hurting As One didn't click with me as much as the other punky songs on here, but maybe it will after a few listens. Still, a really energetic one, that definitely sounds kinda old-school 8/10

Cruising California got a little bit better after a few listens, but still no favouriste, naturally. At first I more or less hated the song, but now that I heard the full album, I'm cooler with it. Dull fun song, but the melody may stick in your head for some time. 6.5

I sort of liked Fix You, but neverthless, I see me skipping this (and Kristy, which I still think is a bad song), relatively often while listening to RAFRAG.
One will see how All I Have Left Is You does over the years, but for now, I really dig this song. It's slow and sometimes bordering the cheesy a tin little bit, but the emotion is really convincing in this, to a greater extent than on Fix You. It's not directly romantic nor depressing, but can be both, based on occasion. Reminds me in this point of Denial, Revisited from Conspiracy, also with the fat guitars in an otherwise more quiet song. 8.5/10

While OC Guns ain't no Guns Of Brixton, it's still a successful experiment. The bass line is really cool, the Spanish is really cool, the blend of reaggae and mariachi...yeah, let's simply say it's a goddamn cool tune, and something you haven't heard from the band before 8/10

I can see why they remade Dirty Magic, which always was one of my favourite songs off my favourite album. The new version features electric guitars, fantastic background vocals (like +- every song on Days Go By ), and for sure a more profession production. Why I think I prefer, overall, the 92 version, I really dig the new, powerful chorus. Hard to rate, but I tend to giving it a 9/10.

I Wanna Secret Family (With You) is a fun little pop-punk song with a 60's rock'n'roll-vibe. Nice thing, but a little bit irrelevant in my opinion. 7.5/10

Dividing By Zero surprised me from the start, because it's a really oldschool-Offspring-punk song, not failing at also fitting with the more modern post-Splinter-sound! Like track two, too, this is powerful, angry, definitely punky and at the same time melodic, catchy and technically accomplished. One of the best Offspring songs in this century and, imo, in general. Same goes for Slim Pickens, which is also a very punk-style-song. Reminded me a bit of Bad Religion at the beginning, but has an incredibly catchy & strong chorus, with a nice inclusion of the iconic "Dance Fucker, Dance!"-line off their last album's #1-single. The greatest thing with the Punk-songs on Days Go By is that they're all pure energy combined with great melodies and are even quite danceable pieces of great music -> 10/10 for the best closing song(s) since (at least) Pay The Man.

All in all, Days Go By consists of great Punk Songs, mostly well done experiments from Rock to Pop to Reaggae/Hip-Hop, which are more radical in their respective approach than their experiments on older albums, and just very few filler. On the one side, it's a great continuation of RAFRAG, on the other it contains also pretty cool new elements and much old and new energy :-)

-> My favourite of 2012 so far & one of the best four Offspring-albums 9/10. I doubt that I'll doubt the Offspring again before the release of the 10th album^^

Peace, & enjoy Days Go By!

[Eskimo]

Raptor, I guess my point is that people don't think before jumping to comparisons. The "Times Like These" accusations were pretty valid with the original "Days Go By" version because, admittedly, the riff immediately invited the comparison. It'd be pretty hard to make that link with the final version, though.

Accusations of them ripping off Green Day with more than a couple of tracks on the last disc? Sure.

But this example is pretty much infuriating as fuck, because it just sounds like THEM. If it sounds like Rise Against, it's only because RA is a band that pretty obviously likes The Offspring and took some inspiration from them with their sound.

If you want to say it's The Offspring recycling their same old sound and being lazy, that wouldn't even piss me off. But the RA thing is pretty much like saying Metallica's ripping off Trivium or some shit.

[Rooster]

Yeah, I get where you're coming from


Or you can even take it this way (I'm joking here, of course) - The Offspring is better at making "Rise Against-ish" songs than Rise Against are at this point

[Sara MZK]

Exactly! The Offspring ripped off Rise Against, who ripped off The Offspring, so in effect, The Offspring are ripping themselves off!

[Eskimo]

Indeedamundoroony.

...Balls.

Sex robot. There goes my penis.

[weezly]

cool as album, love all of it, all i have left is you is a great track. what a great album, i might say its there best ever?? oc guns is a bit weird though?