Splinter (The Offspring album)
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| Splinter | |||||
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| Studio album by The Offspring | |||||
| Released | December 9, 2003 | ||||
| Recorded | January-August 2003 | ||||
| Genre | Punk rock | ||||
| Length | 32:00 | ||||
| Label | Columbia | ||||
| Producer | Brendan O'Brien and The Offspring | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| The Offspring chronology | |||||
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| Singles from Splinter | |||||
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Splinter is the seventh studio album by The Offspring, released on December 9, 2003. It was the first album the band released without drummer Ron Welty and also the first to have a Parental Advisory label on some album covers, even though many of their previous albums contain profanity.
Although not as successful as The Offspring's albums between Smash and Conspiracy of One, Splinter received gold certification two months after its release.[1] The album received average reviews, but still sold reasonably well, despite the lack of a third U.S. single.
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[edit] Production and marketing
After spending nearly two years supporting the Conspiracy of One album, The Offspring began writing songs for Splinter in late 2002. Recording sessions for the album lasted from January to August 2003, making it the first time The Offspring had recorded an album in over five months (although their next album, 2008's Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace, took more than a year to record).
Uncomfortable with the idea of bringing in an immediate replacement for Welty, the band opted to have session musician Josh Freese play drums for the recording of the album, with plans to find a fulltime drummer upon the record's completion.
The crowd vocals in the opening track "Neocon" were recorded at Reading Festival in 2002 during the Offspring's set on Mainstage. Estimates based on the capacity of Reading Festival would suggest at least 50,000 people are in the crowd.
[edit] Album title
On April Fools' Day 2003, the album's title was jokingly announced as Chinese Democrazy, a parody of the repeatedly delayed Chinese Democracy album by Guns N' Roses. To quote Holland, "You snooze, you lose. Axl ripped off my braids, so I ripped off his album title."[2]
[edit] Track listing
All songs written by The Offspring and produced by Brendan O'Brien
- "Neocon" – 1:06
- "The Noose" – 3:18
- "Long Way Home" – 2:23
- "Hit That" – 2:49
- "Race Against Myself" – 3:32
- "(Can't Get My) Head Around You" – 2:15
- "The Worst Hangover Ever" – 2:58
- "Never Gonna Find Me" – 2:39
- "Lightning Rod" – 3:20
- "Spare Me the Details" – 3:24
- "Da Hui" – 1:42
- "When You're in Prison" – 2:33
[edit] Enhanced version
The Enhanced CD portion of the CD contains a couple of hidden tracks: "The Kids Aren't Alright (Island Mix)" and an instrumental version of "When You're in Prison".
[edit] Excluded Tracks
There was another song recorded for the album called "Pass Me By". The band felt that it was too heavy for the album, which is why it wasn't included on the disk.[3] It was briefly rumored that "Pass Me By" might be included on the next Offspring album, which will be released in 2008. Despite being unreleased, the band has since denied this.
[edit] Critical reception
Reviewers from sites such as Launch.com claimed Splinter was a welcome return to The Offspring's punk roots, citing songs such as "The Noose" and "Da Hui". The more mainstream songs, "Hit That" and "Spare Me the Details", were also praised.[4]
All Music Guide's Johnny Loftus also praised punk songs such as "Long Way Home" and "Lightning Rod", and claimed second single "Head Around You" was the album's standout. Like many fans though, he criticized songs such as "The Worst Hangover Ever" and "When You're in Prison", calling them 'throwaways'.[5] Pop Matters also praised "Head Around You", "Race Against Myself", and other heavier songs on the album. However, it also called "Worst Hangover Ever" 'idiotic' and again criticized "When You're In Prison" and "Neocon".
Another thing that was attacked was the album's short length, which was even shorter than Conspiracy of One. The review concluded that the album was 'wasted potential', portraying it as merely average, in the same vein as many other critical reviews.[6]
Some fans also said Splinter did not have a unique sound, though others felt it was The Offspring's darkest album to date ("The Noose", "Never Gonna Find Me", and "Lightning Rod" supporting this). The ska song, "The Worst Hangover Ever", is often slated as breaking the album's rhythm and theme, being placed right in the middle of the album between "Head Around You" and "Never Gonna Find Me", two of the album's heavier, more punk-sounding songs.
Splinter was also heavily praised for its lyrical content, said to take a considerable step up from the band's previous material. "Lightning Rod" is often used as an example of this. However, the album's ending of "Da Hui", which some were unhappy with, and joke song "When You're in Prison", which does not fit with the general album, were criticized as "not being a satisfying end to an already short album."[7]
[edit] Singles
Three singles were chosen from the album, in this order: "Hit That", "(Can't Get My) Head Around You", and "Spare Me the Details". The first single, "Hit That", proved to be the most successful, and while the first two singles had videos ("Hit That" a largely computer-animated video and "Head Around You" a performance video with some extreme camera movements), "Spare Me the Details" did not. A video was also made for the song "Da Hui", despite it not being a single.
[edit] Music videos
- Da Hui on Google Video
- Hit That on YouTube
- (Can't Get My) Head Around You on YouTube
[edit] Personnel
[edit] The band
- Dexter Holland - lead vocals, guitars
- Noodles - guitars, backing vocals
- Greg K. - bass, backing vocals
[edit] Additional musicians
- Josh Freese - drums
- Ronnie King - keyboards on "Hit That"
- Jim Lindberg - backing vocals
- Jack Grisham - backing vocals
- Higgins (X-13) - backing vocals
- 2002 Reading Festival Crowd - crowd vocals on "Neocon"
- Mark Moreno - DJ scratching on "The Worst Hangover Ever"
- Phil Jordan - trumpet on "The Worst Hangover Ever"
- Jason Powell - saxophone on "The Worst Hangover Ever"
- Erich Marbach - trombone on "The Worst Hangover Ever"
- Brendan O'Brien - piano on "Spare Me The Details"
- Lauren Kinkade - backing vocals on "When You're In Prison"
- Natalie Leggett, Mario De Leon, Eve Butler, Denyse Buffum, Matt Funes - violins on "When You're In Prison"
- Larry Corbett - cello on "When You're In Prison"
- Gayle Levant - harp on "When You're In Prison"
[edit] References
- ^ RIAA (type in "Offspring")
- ^ The Offspring History (Official Website)
- ^ Journal Entry by Dexter Holland, posted 18th August, 2006
- ^ Splinter Review by Craig Rosen of Yahoo! Music, posted December 12, 2003
- ^ Splinter Review by Johnny Loftus of All Music Guide
- ^ Off the Mark… by Adam Williams of PopMatters, posted January 16, 2004
- ^ Splinter is "too short" to be good posted in the Offspring Forums
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