So ubiquitous have The Offspring been as mainstream punk heavyweights over the last three decades that, when reminded that latest album Let The Bad Times Roll is their first in nine years, many fans would struggle to believe they’ve been away at all. That’s largely due to the strength of a back-catalogue whose songs somehow feel simultaneously ageless and emblematic of their specific moments in time. Every rock fan worth their tattered T-shirt will instantly recognise the spring-loaded slapstick of Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) or Come Out And Play’s weird Eastern-inflected riff. Hell, even obscure deep-cuts like Kill The President and Get It Right (neither of which make this list) have a habit of cropping up as notable milestones in conversations surrounding punk’s re-emergence as a mainstream force in the 1990s.
The Offspring’s story goes even further back than that, of course. Originally formed as Manic Subsidal in 1984, they pressed on from the ignominy of finishing last in a high school battle of the bands in their early days to crashing the mainstream with breakout third LP Smash a decade later. Frontman Dexter Holland (also an accomplished scientist) and guitarist Kevin 'Noodles' Wasserman are the outfit’s mainstays, with long-serving bassist Greg K having been replaced by Todd Morse following his split from the band in 2018, while Pete Parada is the latest in a revolving line-up of drummers. It’s their unbending adherence to old principles, though – high energy, sharp humour, emotional honesty – that’s ensured The Offspring are every bit as listenable and loveable now as they were as angry young men.