Supercharged Worldwide is headed to the UK in 2025, so we’re ranking the best tracks by The Offspring
It can’t be denied that The Offspring are certified punk legends. A staple of the genre’s ‘90s wave that saw three-chord riffs and shouty choruses surge back into the mainstream, they bridged the gap between the scrappier side of punk and the catchier pop-punk sounds that were also beginning to gain traction. Consequently, they became the ideal gateway band for kids of that generation to discover rock music and remain so today, a fixture of alt club playlists, and they’re still packing out arenas 40 years in.
Formed in California in 1983, the band ended up on a slow burn trajectory with their first two albums, 1989’s self-titled debut and 1992’s Ignition. It was with their 1994 commercial breakthrough Smash, however, that things really took flight. Later in the decade on 1998’s Americana, they redoubled their efforts and served up a smorgasbord of huge singles that were part of the heavy rotation on MTV. They’ve had eleven albums out in total, and after a relatively quiet period release-wise in the 2010s, they’ve been quick to action this decade with 2021’s Let The Bad Times Roll and their brand new record ‘Supercharged’.
It’s also well known that The Offspring’s lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Dexter Holland holds a PhD in microbiology, which he earned in 2017. He had to put his studies to one side after the band took off with the release of Smash, but later came back to it, writing his thesis on HIV.
But in a back catalogue stacked with hits, which comes out on top? We put together a definitive ranking…
The Offspring’s new album has been heralded as a return to form after the wobbly Let The Bad Times Roll three years prior, and lead single ‘Make It All Right’ certified that the band’s new era would have them back at their best. It’s as if the punk quartet opened a time capsule from their heyday, with bright, catchy refrains and the distinctive vintage-sounding production of Bob Rock making it able to fit with the rest of their discography with ease. Crucially, it also doesn’t sound forced, or like mutton dressed as lamb – indeed, its more mature lyrics giving thanks to your friends for being there ensures they’ve aged gracefully
On this choppy cut from Americana, The Offspring lean into the rougher end of their punk remit for a song about defiance and refusing to get sucked into a cycle of self-destruction. “I won’t be frustrated/By the destruction in your eyes,” sings Holland, before seemingly sweetening the pill with another huge chorus, complete with their signature whoa-ohs. It’s something of a dark horse hit, never one of the most well-known big hitters but always afforded a quiet sense of loyalty by both fans and the band, who frequently return to it live.
This breezy skate-punk banger from Smash might sound a little dark at the outset – “Hey, man, you know I’m really okay/The gun in my hand will tell you the same,” – but it’s goofy underneath. Partly playing up the drama of road rage, and partly about the frustration of driving an old banger that splutters and stalls, it was inspired by Holland’s old 1980 Chevette that couldn’t even drive fast enough for the motorway. After helping to crank The Offspring’s fortunes up a gear (pun intended) when it was first released, it remains one of their most played songs live.
This breakneck punk rager has aged almost too well, feeling almost more attuned to the current political climate than of the time it was written. Its plea for personal freedom isn’t abjectly political as such, and can be read in more universal ways, but can certainly be interpreted as a means of batting the government’s hands of control away – “The powers that be just breathe down your neck/You get no respect (You get no relief)/You gotta speak up and yell out your piece,” roars Holland. It’s almost not surprising that a first draft, ‘Protocol’, was written for Bad Religion and Epitaph Records, before The Offspring reworked it for themselves after Brett Guriewitz’s damning feedback – “Play it on acoustic later or something,” – made them rethink.
Want You Bad’ is pure skitterish, catchy fun, but fans frequently miss the double entendre of the song’s title. Holland might want someone badly, but he specifically wants her to be bad – “Your one vice is you’re too nice,” he sings in the pre-chorus before later detailing what he’s actually got in mind. He’s dreaming of someone tattooed, “in a vinyl suit” who’s “complicated, X-rated” and might not treat him like such a sweetheart. With a chorus so infectious it demands to live rent free in your head for hours, ‘Want You Bad’ is a certified alternative club classic.
It might be one of The Offspring’s most well-known songs, but it’s sometimes a little marmite. Found by some to be too cheesy or too wacky, nonetheless it’s surged to popularity for good reason, not least because of how catchy it is. With bouncing riffs and the quirky touches of a cowbell and guiro, it pokes fun at white men who imitate Black culture for a trend – “Now cruisin’ in his Pinto, he sees homies as he pass/But if he looks twice, they’re gonna kick his lily ass.” It’s relatable, it’s remained relevant and it elevated them even further.
Seeing The Offspring live without hearing ‘Come Out And Play’ would be a rare, if not sacrilegious, event (they opened their Download set with it). Nonetheless, beneath its spidery solos and chunky riffs, it’s one of their darker hits, focusing on youth violence, gang warfare and the plight of uninhibited access to guns. Indeed, one of its sneering lines in its chorus stings particularly hard – “If you’re under 18 you won’t be doing any time/Hey, come out and play,” referencing how criminal gangs enlist minors. More serious and worldly in nature, it pays its dues to the harder, more political side of the genre they belong to.
Almost whimsical in sound, with acoustic guitar and even the tinkle of steel drums in its chorus, ‘Why Don’t You Get A Job?’ is both sneery and cheery, somehow. The clue’s in the title – it dismisses a lazy partner content to sit on the sofa and waste their life, right from the take-no-prisoners opening line of “My friend’s got a girlfriend and he hates that bitch,” (which is inverted with a female friend and her boyfriend later on). It’s a slight outlier for The Offspring arguably, but it’s where they get most creative.
A surprise smash hit from a band who, at the time, were thought to have passed their commercial peak, The Offspring came out swinging with this surprisingly angsty turn from their eighth album. Aiming to tear down a liar and manipulator, it doesn’t feel like it was made for stomping around as much as it does dancing with a drink in hand, but this is also key to its intrigue. It doesn’t wear out quickly, neither because of its catchiness nor because of its fierce putdowns – “Dance f*cker dance,” sneers Holland.
As much of a banger as it is, ‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’ is pretty much as bleak as it gets from The Offspring. A cry of dismay at just how dark life can get, it zeroes in on young people jobless, suicidal and addicted to drugs to escape the horrors, their dreams in pieces. It’s both pointed and prescient, and as depressing it might be, it could have easily been written now as opposed to the late nineties. It’s almost no surprise it tops the list of their most streamed songs on Spotify.
The Offspring have already demonstrated they’re capable of a lot of different things, but this big hitter succeeds by keeping it simple, but no less interesting (exhibit A, that brilliant, snaking bassline). Its sense of heartbreak has a barbed edge – Holland is being treated poorly by a dishonest woman who uses him and “sleeps with my friends”, but his misfortune is twofold. She’s treating him badly, but he’s allowing it by not summoning the self-respect to leave for good. It brings another dimension to the sad boy sentiment that would be increasingly repeated in the decade or two to follow, and crucially, it’s a situation far too many people may have found themselves in growing up.
