October 16, 1992 - Ignition

Seventeen days after my last release and over three years since their debut album "The Offspring", The Offspring released their second album "Ignition" on October 16, 1992. The Offspring had started to gain some popularity in southern California, but were still pretty unknown even after the release of this album. They still play the same punk-rock style, so let's check out some fast-paced Offspring!

Like their first album, every song on this album could probably be summed up the same way: fast-paced guitar, bass and drums form a nice punk-rock riff while Dexter Holland sings the verse and shouts the chorus. The first song "Session" begins with Dexter just yelling "fuck!" a few times at the top of his lungs before Ron Welty cues up the drum beat and Greg K., Noodles and Holland join in to form a catchy main riff. It rolls right into a similar chorus with Noodles and Greg K. yelling the name of the song in the background while Dexter sings the chorus. Welty's fast drum beat sounds solid throughout the song and they roll right through this high-powered opener. Up next is "We Are One" and it has an epic, slower opening before "settling" into a typical punk-y main riff. The music nicely cuts out when Dexter sings "stop" in the verse and they then connect it nicely to a typical Offspring chorus. It's a pretty repetitive song that probably didn't need to be four minutes long, but it's still a solid tune that's hard  to tap your foot to. Track 3 is "Kick Him When He's Down" and it's a bit slower than the usual punk pace and has a nice catchy guitar riff leading the way as Dexter nicely follows along to it on vocals. Again, once they establish the main riff they don't stray far from it and this song is decent, but it drags more than the first two songs did. The next song is "Take It Like A Man" and they kick right into a nice typical Offspring riff led by some cool guitar by Noodles. After a couple verses and choruses Noodles plays a cool guitar bit that's not really a solo but it does spice things up a bit before they predictably jam things out. Track 5 is "Get It Right" and words don't properly do justice to what are several different, unique and pretty catchy riffs; but this is also a solid punk-y riff with cool guitar and bass, fast drums and of course Dexter's signature style. The chorus has Noodles and Greg K. whoa-ing in the background in typical Offspring fashion and this is yer another quick tune that sticks to it's main riff and gets it over with fast. Up next is "Dirty Magic" and it has a much slower pace and is led by an almost grunge-y main guitar riff. Dexter's voice sounds solid in this grunge-y setting but it's not long before they nicely shift into a heavier hard rock chorus. They play another slow grunge-y riff, another harder chorus and then they unexcitedly just jam out the slow grunge-y riff for a bit before ending this lesser song with a final chorus. Track 7 is "Hypodermic", a quieter but still typical Offspring song with fast guitars and Dexter singing nicely along. The chorus is a little louder, but it's a similarly simple riff as things unexcitedly repeat for the three-plus minutes. The next song is "Burn It Up" and Noodles plays a catchy stop-and-start guitar riff and Greg K. and Dexter nicely fill in the gaps on bass and vocals. Noodles sings some classic Offspring backing vocals in the chorus inbetween Dexter's lines of "yeah I'm a pyro, I wanna burn it up" and although like the last song they don't really stray from the main verse and chorus I thought this one was much more exciting and upbeat. Track 9 is "No Hero" and Noodles leads the way with another catchy punk rock guitar riff and Dexter sings in a more toned down voice in the verse before returning to his usual yelling in a solid and catchy chorus. After another quick verse and chorus they nicely break things down and Greg K. and Welty form a cool rhythm section with some nice bass and drums. Dexter sings a pretty epic new verse overtop as it's nice to see Offspring stray from the path a bit and I think they did a great job with this part before closing out the song with a final verse and chorus. Up next is "L.A.P.D." and Greg K. starts us off on bass, then Dexter joins on guitar, then Welty on drums and finally Noodles enters on lead guitar as they settle into a nice main riff before Dexter sings overtop. Dexter's yelling in the chorus sounds great and Noodles spices things up with bits of cool guitar, including a short solo! It's out of place for these guys but it fit the mood pretty nicely before they nicely return to the main riff to close it out. Track 11 is "Nothing From Something" and it has an epic punk-y guitar opening from Noodles before they settle into a typical Offspring main riff. After a couple quick verses and choruses there's a nice little guitar part that brings us to another solo, but the guitar solo is in the background while the main riff continues much louder overtop. A strange decision I think and it's certainly more anticlimactic than exciting. The final song on the album is "Forever And A Day" and they kick right into a very fast-paced main riff that sounds pretty good and very Offspring. Dexter holds some solid longer notes and Noodles does more "ohhh-whoahh"ing in the chorus. There's a guitar solo in this song as well and this one is nicely in the spotlight as Noodles delivers a pretty sweet short solo. The song is over pretty quickly as the album fades to an end.

That is the end of "Ignition" and I thought it was another solid but not spectacular album from The Offspring. It followed in a similar vein to their debut album but I think it was a bit more of a complete effort and I like "Ignition" better than "The Offspring", though both albums are pretty similar. Will The Offspring step up their game again next time? I can't wait to see!