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LIKE BLINK-182, the Offspring get a kick out of writing irreverent songs about serious subjects. The first single from Splinter, "Hit That," is a pogo-friendly anthem that just topped Billboard’s modern-rock chart and also made a respectable showing (#64) on the Hot 100. "I’m on a roll with all the girls I know/I know you wanna hit that/I know you wanna hit that, hit that," frontman Dexter Holland squeals, an elastic pop groove providing a fitting backdrop for his character’s philandering. Sounds like a party, but it turns out there’s a moral to the story: dude’s got a baby he should be paying more attention to at home. "What was a family is now a shell/We’re raising kids now who raise themselves," Holland laments, a goofy synth line keeping things from getting too heavy. The track is kitschy and thoughtful at the same time — an Offspring specialty. It’s been 10 years since the Offspring shocked the music biz with the release of Smash (Epitaph), which at six million and counting stands as the best-selling independent rock album of all time. In 1998, they scored another blockbuster with their second Columbia disc, Americana, but two years later their sales numbers fell back to earth with Conspiracy of One. Today, colorful hits like "Come Out and Play" and "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" are rock-radio staples, and the recent departure of drummer Ron Welty marks the SoCal band’s first significant line-up change. Session ace Josh Freese (Good Charlotte, Vandals) played on Splinter; Atom Willard (Rocket from the Crypt) has since become Welty’s official replacement. Americana is the template for Splinter, which barely breaks the 30-minute barrier and devotes half its running time to pop novelties. The band spend the other half of the album doing what they do best: maximum-impact skate punk that sounds as authentic now as it did when they first started. That said, they’re spinning their wheels on "(Can’t Get My) Head Around You," the disc’s second single and a transparent rewrite of the Smash classic "Gotta Get Away." "Every single day, what you say makes no sense to me," Holland howls, the tune’s crackling guitars echoing his frustration. Other rockers are less of a regression: "The Noose" is a furious protest song — "The noose is falling/And enemies are rising" — and the soul-searching power ballad "Race Against Myself" boasts the album’s raunchiest riffs. From the Sugar Ray–sounding island pop of "The Worst Hangover Ever" to the tasteless vaudeville romp "When You’re in Prison," the jokes take over on Splinter’s second half. "Da Hui," a two-minute hardcore blowout that owes its name from the legendary Hawaiian surf collective, is fierce enough to transcend the smirk on its face. But next to "Hit That," the disc’s most memorable novelty track is "Spare Me the Details," which sticks one of Holland’s sharpest hooks atop breezy acoustic guitars and a slippery "Low Rider" beat. "And I really don’t want to hear/About her feet all up in the air," he grimaces, lying in bed with nothing in his head but the image of his girlfriend cheating on him. Splinter isn’t the best of the Offspring’s four major-label efforts, but it’s got more than enough personality to cement their status as mainstream punk’s merriest pranksters. Blink-182 perform on Tuesday June 8 at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield; call (508) 339-2333.
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