MattA75's Full Review: And Out Come the Wolves... by Rancid
When it comes to inspiration for punk artists, more often than not, there are three artists who are credited more than any other: The Ramones, The Sex Pistols and The Clash. The Ramones played two minute songs that sounded like The Beach Boys done at 200 miles per hour. The Sex Pistols were perhaps the first truly "crude" punk band, although hardly the best. The Pistols you see, are by far the most over-rated band in music history. And The Clash were by far the most talented of those three bands, melding the fire in the belly anthemic punk quality with other forms of music, such as reggae, ska, jazz and pop.
So if one were to look for a band to compare 90s punks Rancid to, it's obvious. Rancid loves the Clash and this shows through on each of their albums. While that influence is more evident on the follow up to this album, Life Won't Wait, the band has yet to quite pull it off as well as they did here. You see, in an ironic twist, Rancid's 1995 album And Out Come the Wolves... may be the best punk album to come out since the Clash's own untouchable epic, 1980's London Calling.
Of course, this is as much a compliment to Rancid as it is a knock on the state of punk music after the Clash broke up in the early 1980s. Punk never truly died, it just became stagnant until the infamous mid 90s MTV revival. Rancid was probably the last band to benefit from that revival, who first made stars out of Green Day and the Offspring. They first scored with Salvation from their Let's Go disc. But it wasn't until this disc that Rancid truly scored mainstream acceptance.
This was thanks to two video hits and another two minor radio hit. The first hit was the very much reggae inspired Time Bomb, with it's infamous "black coat, black shoes, black hat, cadillac" refrain. It was a restrained song, catchy and breezy enough to land on MTV and on radio. But it was Ruby Soho, with it's melodic guitar line and it's fist pumping chorus of "destination unknown, ruby ruby ruby, ruby soho!" that truly broke the band big. Lastly, Roots Radicals and Olympia WA. scored some minor airplay on radio, but the video was never really shown.
There are times where the band's obvious love of the Clash could get in the way of someone who takes this stuff way too seriously (Lock, Step and Gone sound much like Clampdown anyone?), but mostly, if you let it go and have it stand on it's own merits, you should enjoy each and everyone of the nineteen tracks on this album; yes, that's right, all NINETEEN of those.
If you're not convinced, check out the bass solo on Maxwell Murder, the sickest bass solo this side of The Who's5:15. Or shout along with the best punk rave this side of Lust For Life on She's Automatic. Need more energy? Check out As Wicked, which may as well be called She's Automatic's twin sister.
But while all the songs on this album are eminently listenable, nothing quite embodies that punk spirit like The Wars End ("Little Sammy was a punk rocker, you know his mother never understand him..."), a simple ode to fighting with your parents and breaking out on your own: isn't that what punk rock is all about? Good ole rebellion?
Look, I could sit here all night describing the merits of this album. The wonderfully rising dual lead vocals of Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederiksen, the perfect instrumentation that shows off both fury and talent, or the wonderful production job done by the band and Jerry Finn. I mean honestly, the fact that this band wasn't nominated for a Grammy for this whole album is a travesty. Personally, I just feel that any band who makes an album with 19 songs listenable on every single listen, and an album that sounds as fresh today as when it came out 7 years ago (anyone listen to Seven Mary Three lately? didn't think so.) deserves the title of "best punk record since London Calling." But don't take my word for it: take your punk rock butt down to the record store and plop down the $13...it's the best $13 you've spent on a punk record in a very long time.
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