Rancid - Rancid

...met with a mixed reception, Rancid decided to return to a more hardcore sound, ditching the reggae-infused sound that had become associated with them thanks to Life Won't Wait. Instead of coming up with a name for the record, the group decided to make it a self-titled effort. What made this strange was the fact that the group's debut album, released almost a decade prior, was also self-titled. Thus, to avoid to confusion between records, this latest ...
...times of the songs. If Rancid wanted to distance themselves from being pop-punks, this was the best way to do it, only this just proves they don't know how to write 'heavier', or 'non-mainstream' songs.

The songs can be broken into 3 categories, unimaginabley bad, bad in a boring way and even the occasional half-decent song. Fitting in the first category is the opener, it's follow up Disgruntled, which showcases the vocal talents ... more

Released 2 years after their last album was met with a mixed reception, Rancid decided to return to a more hardcore sound, ditching the reggae-infused sound that had become associated with them thanks to Life Won't Wait. Instead of coming up with a name for the record, the group decided to make it a self-titled effort. What made this strange was the fact that the group's debut album, released almost a decade prior, was also self-titled. Thus, to avoid to confusion between records, this latest release was dubbed Rancid 2000 by fans, due to it's year of release. I suppose you could say the title was significant, as if the group was trying to take a 'Year Zero' mentality, eschewing the poppy hooks and reggae vibes that people had come to expect from them, and hoping to forge on with this new, in-your-face, hardcore punk sound. Guitarist and lead 'singer' Tim Armstrong was now running his Hellcat Records label, which showcased bands of such a description, so maybe he was just trying to make his band fit in better with the groups on his label, although it also sported a fair selection of reggae and ska acts, so who knows really?

I can remember buying this record, which, from hereon I shall be referring to as 2000, and really not being all that impressed with it. I had heard the song Poison on one of those Epitaph records Punk-O-Rama samplers, and I was quite timid about the album. The vocals were even more slurred than before, the guitars noiser, faster and more metal and Matt Freeman's bass more subdued. However, I was in my 3-Chord pop-punk phase, and had become hooked on the group with ...And Out Come The Wolves, so I decided I should at least give, what was, their latest album, at the time, a try, to see what it was like.

The band still consisted of the singer/guitarist combo of Armstrong and his partner in crime Lars Frederiksen, bass-guru and atrocious sometime-singer Matt Freeman and the drummer Brett Reed.

The minute the album boomed to life with Don Giovanni, my suspicions were proven right. The 'song' basically consists of the group, usually at least competant musicians, hitting their instruments and screaming a chorus of "you're makin' enemies/like Don Giovanni" over and over, 'complemented' by verses of Tim talking rubbish about Don killing Anya's father, and him coming back from the dead, before warning the listener "so don't fuck with me kid!". Oh you scary, nasty punk.

Over the course of the 22 track album, that summary applies to well over half of the songs. Loud guitar 'noise' roughly based around a tune, one of the three frontmen screaming/slurring verses and cringe-inducing chant choruses that have taken the band from two-bit Clash wannabes to sounding like a crap Sham 69 tribute band, often with lyrics that try to cram as many swear words as possible into the rarely over 2-minutes long running times of the songs. If Rancid wanted to distance themselves from being pop-punks, this was the best way to do it, only this just proves they don't know how to write 'heavier', or 'non-mainstream' songs.

The songs can be broken into 3 categories, unimaginabley bad, bad in a boring way and even the occasional half-decent song. Fitting in the first category is the opener, it's follow up Disgruntled, which showcases the vocal talents of the two guitarists as they attempt to out-bad each other, It's Quite Alright, which is quite frankly one of the worst songs I've ever heard. It's one of the few attempts to craft an upbeat track, but instead it sounds like the band is playing two half-finished songs at once, with one of the most painful on the ears vocal tracks ever put to record. Armstrong sounds like he should be propping up some dive of a bar in a no-name town as he slurs what basically amounts to a load of crap for the song's blissfully short 1:29(altough it seems more like 129 minute) running time.
Lars displays just how dreadful a singer he is on I Am Forever, during which I realised he kind of makes me think of what would happen if Robert Plant tried to make that noise at the start of The Immigrant Song, only after smoking 100 fags a day for ten years, only backed up by crap music.
Speaking of Led Zep, the whole Norse mythology crops up in the form of Loki, although if the quality of the song is anything to go by, Rancid were inspired more by a crappy issue of The Mighty Thor than any real Nordic legends.
Corruption also stakes a claim as one of the worst tracks I've ever heard, with Lars and Tim displaying their aforementioned atrocious vocals, complimented by Matt sounding like an angry Muppets character. How fun.

Another beauty of a clunker is Rattlesnake, a comical 'diss' song of someone who has annoyed Tim. It's quite easily the most laughable lyric on the planet. He chastises this person for jumping on bandwagons, and "your band it's all fashion no passion". Coming from a band who have changed their image and sound to try and win fans so often it's quite ironic.
Not To Regret would just be forgettable, if Tim didn't challenge the boundaries of bad with his vocals, only to be outdone on Rigged On A Fix, when Matt the Malicious Muppet takes the mic again, for a song with the worst chorus ever "it's true/fuck you!". He once again comes to the fore on Reconcilliation, which is almost as bad.

Lyrically the group give a ham-fisted attempt at trying to bring some form of politics to the fore lyrically with songs like Antennas, Blackhawk Down and Rwanda. If only the latter two songs weren't so utterly contemptible it might be possible to applaud them. Antennas, backed by Radio Havana, leads the charge of the 'almost good' songs, but both are let down, the former by the over-use of swearing again, and the latter by the painfull 'repeat' section that rapes the listener's ears. Meteor Of War almost works as a disposable little rocker, and Dead Bodies is almost passable as the same apart from it's spirit-less chorus.

The genericly bad songs would be a cleaner sounding rocker titled Young Al Capone, Axiom, Black Derby Jacket and album closer GGF.

When all is said and done, this is an album that if I ever hear it again, it will be too soon. When I listened to it again for the purpose of this review, I was astouned by just how bad it actually was, it almost sounds like the debut album from a shoddy little band on an independant label, not a group who have had million selling albums. I honestly cannot think of anyone I would recommend this steaming vat of excrement to, be they fans of the band or not. There really is no true redeeming factor about the record, it is quite easily one of the worst albums of the decade, and not a subject I want to discuss any longer. 

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