Originally published by L.S. Media. June 28th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ***

Days Go By is the new album by American Punk Rock band The Offspring and never has an album title felt more apt in terms of how long fans of a group may have felt for its delivery.

This ninth studio album by the band has been creeping and crawling along and was in danger of becoming out of date by the time it finally hit the general public. Patience is sometimes its own reward, especially in music and the pay offs in what the audience hears can be worth every moment, every single agonising second between one album and the next.

Fans of The Offspring have had to wait for four long years for the Californian semi punks to come out with Days Go By and in secluded parts it was worth it, in others the album limps along and grinds its gears, growling at the world but without the feral teeth it had on the classic Americana. For every The Future is Now there is a Hurting As One. Every time you hear Slim Pickens Does The Right Thing And Rides The Bomb To Hell, you will be reminded that you had to go through Cruising California (Bumping In My Trunk) to get to it.

Whilst the cover to the album betrays a loss of innocence, the widening gulf between the young and old with its clever use of young lad and old man on a bench, the album doesn’t give the same consideration to the intelligence of its listener and especially on Cruising California it feels as though Dexter Holland, Noodles, Greg K. and Pete Parada, who makes his debut album appearance with the band, are doing their best to set out and rewrite everything they ever did.

Ultimately Days Go By is disappointing, a bitter taste with a few nuggets of remaining class that doesn’t do enough to disguise the aftertaste. The highs are very good, interesting and radio worthy but on the whole it wasn’t worth the four year wait, no matter how much you like the band.

Ian D. Hall