I realized that I have not given an "F" to any albums yet, and when I thought about which albums deserve one, this is the first one that came to mind. So here goes:
An "F" review is not one that's just a terrible album from some unknown band. To "earn" an F, the album really has to be offensive. It has to set things back, and it has to have a wide reach. Now The Offspring were never a great band. The came to fame by way of their 1994 album Smash, the most successful independent release ever. Smash is a good punk album, and they started out as a punk band in the vein of Bad Religion and other similar '90s acts. The follow up, Ixnay on the Hombre, was basically a worse version of the same thing, and made a better video game soundtrack than an actual album (Crazy Taxi, anyone?)
Then came Americana, in 1998. At this point, The Offspring decided that what they really wanted to be was the "funny" band. Their biggest hits had semi-sarcastic lyrics (those being "Come Out and Play" and "Self Esteem") but the lyrics weren't exactly the strong suit. On Americana, they decided to go for humor on nearly every single track, beginning with the execrable "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)."
Ugh. That song. Where to begin. That horrendous '90s novelty song is basically the ultimate example of a band who thinks they're in on the joke, when in reality they are the joke. Dexter Holland and co. clearly thought their song was some kind of commentary on white kids acting black, but really, it's the musical equivalent of a knock-knock joke.
Similar lowlights from the album include "Why Don't You Get a Job?" and "She's Got Issues," which both are in the same vein: trying too hard to be funny over four power chords. The crazy thing was that this album was very popular, and spawned some of the Offspring's biggest and best-known songs. Worse still, this proved to other bands that this formula could work, paving the way for the likes of Blink-182 and Sum 41. In short: an "F" if I've ever seen one. Heard one, that is.
Grade: F
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