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Smash (The Offspring album)

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For the electronic music album, see Smash (Jackson and His Computer Band album).
Untitled

Smash is the third studio album by American punk rock band The Offspring, released on April 8, 1994 through Epitaph Records. The album was the band's last collaboration with record producer Thom Wilson, who produced their previous two albums, and also their last release on Epitaph (however, that label released their next album in Europe). This is The Offspring's only studio album to be released as simply Offspring.

Smash met high critical reception upon its release, and is now considered a classic punk rock album by fans, critics, and the band members themselves alike. The album was also responsible for bringing The Offspring to the attention of a mainstream punk audience.[1] Smash was the band's first to enter the Billboard 200; the release peaked at number four and topped the Heatseeker's chart. Smash produced four hit singles for the band: "Come Out and Play", "Self Esteem", "Gotta Get Away" and the radio-only single "Bad Habit". With sales continuing in the sixteen years since its release, the album has been certified 6x Platinum in the United States and 4x Platinum in Australia, making this one of the best-selling independent records of all time.

Background and recording

In 1991, The Offspring released the Baghdad 7". This EP was the turning point for the band; due to its success the band signed with Epitaph Records. Thom Wilson, who produced The Offspring's first two albums, had been trying to get the Offspring to switch to Epitaph, a label run by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. Gurewitz felt that The Offspring was just not quite pronounced enough for his label, but Baghdad convinced him to give the band a shot. Wilson and The Offspring entered the studio again and recorded Ignition. Released in 1992, Ignition exceeded all of the label's and band's expectations.[2] In the latter part of 1993, The Offspring began recording their third album, entitled Smash. They entered Track Record in North Hollywood that October,[3] booking two months of studio time in which to record the album.

Writing and composition

Although Smash has a dark, punk rock sound, the album is heavily influenced by the emerging pop punk scene. Bands like Green Day and Rancid were gaining popularity, and riding on this wave of popularity, Smash's singles became modern radio rock hits. A good example of this was the success of The Offspring's first major single release, "Come Out and Play", which reached #1 on Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and has become one of the band's signature songs.[citation needed]

"Come Out and Play", with a pop punk sound radically different from any of The Offspring's earlier work, soon became popular on radio and then on MTV. The song makes reference to the issue of gun and gang violence in the context of a school campus. One lyric reads, "Your never ending spree of death and violence and hate is going to tie your own rope."

The second single released from the album, "Self Esteem," became a radio hit, managing to peak at number 4 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The lyrics are about an abusive relationship in which the girl takes advantage of her boyfriend, as he has "no self-esteem" to stand up to her. Contrary to popular belief, the song is not autobiographical as many people believe. In an interview Dexter revealed that it is about one of his old friends.

The third single, "Gotta Get Away" was another rock radio hit, although it was not as successful as the previous two singles. The song hit number 6 Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Being the last song written for the album, the lyrics describe a point in Dexter's life when he was suffering from extreme pressure due to the then-upcoming deadline of the album.

Although never technically released as a single, "Bad Habit" gained some minor popularity when the influential L.A. radio station KROQ began playing the song in early 1995. There was confusion over whether or not it would be released as the band's next single following the success of "Self Esteem." Unlike the three official singles, a video for "Bad Habit" was never released.

Track listing

All songs written by The Offspring except where noted.

CD

All tracks are written by The Offspring

No.TitleLength
1."Time to Relax"0:25
2."Nitro (Youth Energy)"2:27
3."Bad Habit"3:43
4."Gotta Get Away"3:52
5."Genocide"3:33
6."Something to Believe In"3:17
7."Come Out and Play"3:17
8."Self Esteem"4:17
9."It'll Be a Long Time"2:43
10."Killboy Powerhead" (The Didjits cover)2:02
11."What Happened to You?"2:12
12."So Alone"1:17
13."Not the One"2:54
14."Smash"10:42
Total length:46:47

Original vinyl issue

Side 1

All tracks are written by The Offspring

Side 1
No.TitleLength
1."Time to Relax"0:25
2."Nitro (Youth Energy)"2:27
3."Bad Habit"3:43
4."Gotta Get Away"3:52
5."Genocide"3:33
6."Something to Believe In"3:17
7."Come Out and Play"3:17

Side 2

Side 2
No.TitleLength
8."Self Esteem"4:17
9."It'll Be a Long Time"2:43
10."Killboy Powerhead" (The Didjits cover)2:02
11."What Happened to You?"2:12
12."So Alone"1:17
13."Not the One"2:54
14."Smash"10:42

Track notes

  • The first track, "Time to Relax", is not present on the cassette version, and is a spoken intro to the entire album, rather than a song. A similar intro is included on Americana and its 2000 follow-up Conspiracy of One.
  • At the end of "Genocide", a spoken interlude is heard, where the same man who speaks on "Time to Relax" and the outro to "Smash" says, "I especially enjoyed that one, let's see what's next". Then after this, its next track "Something to Believe In" begins to play.
  • At the end of "Smash", a spoken outro is heard, where the same man who speaks on "Time to Relax" and the outro to "Something to Believe In" says, "There. I hope you enjoyed our time together today. You know it just seems harder and harder to enjoy the finer things in life. Well, 'till next time, ta ta". This is followed by a version of the intro from "Genocide", which is also the intro to an earlier version of "Change the World", which would be re-recorded for the band's next album Ixnay on the Hombre. After five minutes of silence, there is an instrumental Middle Eastern style reprise of "Come Out and Play". The track is called "Come Out and Play (Acoustic Reprise)", and is also found on the "Come Out and Play" single.

Reception

Smash album was released on April 8, 1994 and is the final The Offspring album distributed via Epitaph Records (in the United States). The album peaked at #4 on Billboard's pop albums charts and #1 on the Heatseeker's Chart,[4] performing better than thought possible for an independently released album.

The album received positive reviews, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic described the album a "solid record, filled with enough heavy riffs to keep most teenagers happy". Erlewine praised the music "relentlessly heavy". For the album, he claims that The Offspring had "crossed over", because of the success of its single "Come Out and Play," which "stopped and started just like Nirvana." Smash received a rating of four out of five stars, while "Come Out and Play", "Self Esteem" and "Gotta Get Away" earned The Offspring its heaviest airplay on MTV and radio stations until the release of Americana.[5]

Album art

Smash, as well as the CD singles "Come Out and Play," "Self Esteem," and "Gotta Get Away" all share imagery of an X-ray style skeleton on their covers.

Smash, as well as the singles "Come Out and Play," "Self Esteem," and "Gotta Get Away" have a common artwork theme: an ominous (and highly distorted) skeleton on the cover, disc, and back of the CD case. The music videos for "Self Esteem" and "Come Out and Play" also have several scenes with a similar skeleton. This symbol is believed to represent the core motifs of the album: death, suicide, violence, addiction, and abuse. The skeleton is used to represent that the continuation of these acts will inevitably lead to death (or alternatively, the end of the human race). The art direction is credited to Fred Hidalgo and Kevin Head.[6]

Charts

Album

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year Chart Position
1994 Heatseekers 1
The Billboard 200 4
1995 Australian Albums Chart 1

Singles

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Year Single Chart Position
1994 "Come Out and Play" Modern Rock Tracks 1
Mainstream Rock Tracks 10
Top 40 Mainstream 39
"Self Esteem" Modern Rock Tracks 4
Mainstream Rock Tracks 7
"Gotta Get Away" Modern Rock Tracks 6
1995 Mainstream Rock Tracks 15

Accolades

The information regarding accolades attributed to Smash is adapted from AcclaimedMusic.net.[7]

Publication Country Accolade Year Rank
Exposure Canada 50 Greatest Albums not to make the Greatest Albums lists 2005 35
Robert Dimery United States 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die[8] 2005 *
Kerrang! United Kingdom The Kerrang! 100 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die[9] 1998 54
Kerrang! United Kingdom The Kerrang! 200 Albums For The Year 2000 (Essential '90s)[10] 1998 8
Kerrang! United Kingdom The Kerrang! 50 Greatest Punk Albums Ever[11] 1998 5
Kerrang! United Kingdom The Kerrang! 50 Most Influential Albums Of All Time[12] 1998 5
Mojo United Kingdom The Mojo Collection, Third Edition 2004 *
RAW United Kingdom 90 Essential Albums of the 90s[13] 1995 *
Visions Germany The Best Albums 1991-96[14] 1996 *
Visions Germany The Most Important Albums of the 90s[15] 1999 100

* denotes an unordered list

Total sales and legacy

Since its release in 1994, Smash has proved to be a seller over time, moving over 6,000,000 in the US alone and being certified six times platinum by the RIAA. By 2008, the same year the album was remastered, it had sold over 16,000,000 copies worldwide,[16], making the sales of the album only better than its predecessor, Ignition.[citation needed] It is has been cited as The Offspring's most successful album to date and was the US' best-selling album on an independent label since The Smashing Pumpkins released Gish in 1991. Despite its massive commercial success, it was not The Offspring's highest charting album on Billboard 200, peaking at #4; their fifth album Americana would hit #2 in 1998. Smash also sold well outside the US, particularly in Australia, where it debuted #1 on the ARIA Charts for three weeks in February 1995.

"Come Out and Play" and "Self Esteem" have been played at almost every live show.

Smash is regarded by critics as one of the most influential rock albums of all time, and has inspired a number of musicians. During Trivium's early days, guitarist Matt Heafy performed a cover version of "Self Esteem" at his middle school talent show at Lake Brantley High School, while the British synthpop group Cuban Boys also covered that song on their only full-length Eastwood. The album's other hit, "Come Out and Play", was covered by Richard Cheese on his 2000 album, Lounge Against the Machine and again released on the 2006 album, The Sunny Side of the Moon. Brett Gurewitz, the guitarist of Bad Religion and president of Epitaph, had also mentioned that he liked Smash and described it "a very good record".[17]

Along with Green Day's Dookie, Smash was among the most commercially successful punk rock albums released in 1994, a year when the genre reached arguably its greatest popularity. By the end of the year, Dookie and Smash had both sold millions of copies.[18] The commercial success of these two albums attracted major label interest in pop punk, with bands such as Rancid and Bad Religion, who had both been labelmates with The Offspring at the time, being offered lucrative contracts to leave their independent record labels. However, Rancid eventually rejected this idea before they even achieved some commercial success with their 1995 album …And Out Come the Wolves, which also went platinum.

Chart performance

Charts (1994–1995) Peak
position 		Certification Sales
Australian Albums Chart[19] 1 4x Platinum[20] 280,000+
Austrian Albums Chart[19] 2 Platinum[21] 20,000+
Belgium Albums Chart[19] 2 3x Platinum[22] 90,000+
Canadian Albums Chart[5] - 6x Platinum[23] 600,000+
Finnish Albums Chart[19] 2 3x Platinum[24] 74,500+[25]
French Albums Chart[19] 109 - -
German Albums Chart[26] 4 2x Platinum[27] 400,000+
Japanese Albums Chart[28] 1 5x Platinum[29] 1,000,000+
Netherlands Albums Chart[19] 5 Platinum[30] 50,000+
New Zealand Albums Chart[19] 6 4x Platinum[31] 60,000+
Norsktoppen[19] 9 Gold[32] 15,000+
Swedish Albums Chart[19] 3 3x Platinum[33] 120,000+
Swiss Albums Chart[19] 3 Platinum[34] 50,000+
UK Albums Chart[35] 21 - 50,000+
U.S. Billboard 200[5] 4 6x Platinum[36] 6,000,000+

Personnel

The Offspring

Additional personnel

  • Lisa Johnson - Photography
  • Ken Paulakovich - Engineer
  • Eddy Schreyer - Mastering
  • Thom Wilson - Producer, engineer
  • Fred Hidalgo - Art direction
  • Mike Ainsworth - Assistant engineer
  • Ulysses Noriega - Assistant engineer
  • Christopher C. Murphy - Assistant engineer/Runner

See also

References

General references

  • Smash (Media notes). Epitaph Records. 1994. {{cite AV media notes}}: |format= requires |url= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |publisherid=, |mbid=, and |notestitle= (help); Unknown parameter |albumlink= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |bandname= ignored (help)

Notes

  1. ^ Sorted magAZine - Bad Religion
  2. ^ Offspring Biography
  3. ^ The exact date that the recording of Smash began is uncertain.
  4. ^ Chart information at Allmusic
  5. ^ a b c "Smash". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 2008-02-02. Cite error: The named reference "allmusic" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Smash" Linear Notes
  7. ^ "List of Smash Accolades". Acclaimed Music. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  8. ^ Robert Dimery. "Outline Page". Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  9. ^ Kerrang!. "Kerrang! - The Kerrang! 100 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  10. ^ Kerrang!. "Kerrang! - The Kerrang! 200 Albums For The Year 2000". Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  11. ^ Kerrang!. "Kerrang! - The Kerrang! 50 Greatest Punk Albums Ever". Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  12. ^ Kerrang!. "Kerrang! - The Kerrang! 50 Most Influential Albums Of All Time". Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  13. ^ RAW. "RAW Albums of the Year". Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  14. ^ Visions. "Visions - Popular Music Best-Of-Lists List". Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  15. ^ Visions. "Visions - Popular Music Best-Of-Lists List". Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  16. ^ "Band Bio". TheOffspring.com. Retrieved 2008-02-02.
  17. ^ "The Offspring". The Bad Religion Page. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
  18. ^ Bestseller lists and Diamond Certification available at the RIAA website: http://www.riaa.com/gp/bestsellers/diamond.asp
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Smash - Chart Positions" HitParade.ch.
  20. ^ "ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 1997 Albums" Australian Recording Industry Association.
  21. ^ "IFPI - Austria - Search for Offspring" IFPI Austria.
  22. ^ "BEA Database" Belgian Entertainment Association.
  23. ^ "CRIA Database - Search for Offspring" Canadian Recording Industry Association.
  24. ^ "IFPI - Finland - Search for Offspring" IFPI Finland.
  25. ^ "The Offspring Albums - Total Sales and Certifications" IFPI Finland - Certifications.
  26. ^ "Media Control Charts - The Offspring" Media Control Charts.
  27. ^ "Musikindustrie Database - Search for Offspring" Bundesverband Musikindustrie.
  28. ^ "Oricon Album Charts Search for The Offspring" Oricon.
  29. ^ "RIAJ Database - Search for Offspring" Recording Industry Association of Japan.
  30. ^ "NVPI Database - Search for Offspring" The Dutch Association of Producers and Importers of image- and sound bearers.
  31. ^ "RIANZ Charts - Search for The Offspring - Smash" Recording Industry Association of New Zealand.
  32. ^ "IFPI - Norway - Search for Offspring" IFPI Norway.
  33. ^ "IFPI - Sweden - Search for Offspring" IFPI Sweden.
  34. ^ "IFPI - Switzerland - Certifications for The Offspring" Hitparade.
  35. ^ "Chart Log UK (1994–2006) The O – Ozric Tentacles" Zobbel.
  36. ^ "RIAA Database Search for Offspring" Recording Industry Association of America.
Preceded by Australian ARIA Albums Chart number-one album
February 5–25, 1995 		Succeeded by

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