Offspring Month: Greatest Hits (2005)

Compilation album including the highest charting singles from the Smash to Splinter era. Far from being complete (no S/T or Ignition stuff at all), but it comes with a few new goodies. Definitely worth a listen.

The Offspring - Greatest Hits (2005) - non-singles aren't marked with red

video links provided where available

• Can't Repeat  ♪  ♪  ♪  ♪  ♪  - mv - Stating with a new song, a single itself. It's a meditation on how good times can't last forever, so you have to be brave and embrace your future. Sad and inspiring at the same time. It was written on purpose to sound 100% pure Offspring 1.01, and I think it captured the CO1/Splinter era very well. If you liked Million Miles Away (one of the omitted singles, sadly), you're gonna love this one.
• Come Out and Play (Keep 'Em Separated)
• Self Esteem
• Gotta Get Away
• All I Want
• Gone Away
• Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)
• Why Don't You Get a Job?
• Original Prankster
• Want You Bad
• Defy You  ♪  ♪  ♪  ♪  ♪  - mv - Goddamn it, finally! There are two things keeping this song away from being the best thing they've ever recorded. One, the guitar in the "All my will" verses sounds really similar to the main melody of Staind's Outside. Two, sometimes the lyrics are cringe-worthy, like if hey were written by an angry eight year old following a playground fight. Putting these complaints aside, the sound, the feeling, the sheer power this track has.... it's amazing. The music, the melody has an almost otherworldly, rocking, but somehow elegant coolness to it, and the banal lyrics are sung with overwhelming power, enhanced by the best possible effects and perfect mixing. It's not just a great song, it's an experience I haven't got bored of since the first time I've heard it, eleven years ago.
• Hit That
• (Can't Get My) Head Around You

Other stuff:

• Next to You - Originally by The Police. Probably my favorite cover song.
• Some relics on the DualDisc editions all the tracks with 5.1 surround sound, Splinter-esque video commentaries by Dexter and Noodles and they even perform an acoustic version of Dirty Magic. Really good stuff.
• The Kid's Aren't Alright (The Wiseguys remix) - On European and South American editions. Will be discussed in an upcoming post.
• Spare Me The Details - Australian releases only
• Da Hui - Japanese releases only

Next time: "For all the rising and falling there's nothing to show..."