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Billboard

But as opposed to Blink, which powers straight ahead with scatological juvenility, the Offspring bridges punk with change-ups of metal and traditional rock and brings a more sarcastic wit to its observations of male teen angst.

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Entertainment Weekly

'Conspiracy of One' continues very much in the vein of its three high energy predecessors. Dexter Holland still sings as if every muscle in his neck were taut, guitarist Noodles cranks out the rivet gun riffs, the band knows a good hook when it latches onto one, and, in the venerable tradition of the Ramones, nearly every one of its fast paced songs sounds pretty much the same.

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Revolver

The Offspring's hit-making machinery is as efficiently well-oiled as ever. [#3, p.106]

Rolling Stone

The album finds the Orange County band playing to its strengths: furious, compressed bursts of wit and good-humored spleen.

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Spin

"Original Prankster" is one hell of a rump-shaker... the rest of Conspiracy buzzes from skate metal to Ozzed-up pop to Chili-peppered funk-punk to Billy Squirey sleaze-core. [Jan 2001, p.113]

Wall of Sound

There's not much fat here, but there's not much meat and bone, either. If the Offspring, still the most successful of all the latter-day Southern California punkers, once had interest in teasing and amusing its fans, it has largely hidden those qualities this time around.

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Q Magazine

The Offspring are nothing if not reliable. If you're after jangly guitars riffs, chart-thumping production values and shouty choruses, then the Orange County punk outfit are still very much your guys.

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Sonicnet

Despite their retro stylings, this Orange County, California band has served up a sixth album that is better (by leaps and bounds) than the punk-by-numbers that dominated their first two albums, 1989's Offspring and '93's Ignition. Further, Conspiracy has more well-written, hook-laden songs than anything found on their fluke indie hit, '94's fittingly titled Smash, or their too-boring-to-be-a-sell-out 1997 major label debut, Ixnay on the Hombre.

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All Music Guide

The Offspring's most musically mature collection to date. The arrangements are tight and don't bore, which is sometimes the case with albums that feature similar-sounding songs.

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Village Voice

Conspiracy of One? It's fine. Is there anything here as cute as "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)"? No: Like with Ixnay on the Hombre, their follow-up to the megahit Smash, this follow-up to the even more megahit Americana finds them in dance-with-the-girl-what-brung-you mode--more punk, less pop.

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Alternative Press

The Offspring once again demonstrate this knack for incorporating flavor-of-the-month flourishes into their sound in tongue-in-cheek fashion.... These embellishments aside, the Offspring hone in on the dyed-in-the-wool cheetah-paced punk that is their true bread and butter. [Jan 2001, p.81]

Dot Music

The production is lame, and the album as a whole is unconvincing in it's pretences as hi-energy, bouncy and above all youthful punk. And Dexter Holland's vocals simply grate after a while. Die-hard Offspring fans will find nothing which deviates from the original plot, so they won't lose any long-term believers from this offering.

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Launch.com

The Offspring are interested in distilled punk-by-numbers, and are hardly interested in--or perhaps incapable of--finding something new to say.

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Select

The record is permeated with an air of bashed-out-before-tea desperation. [Jan 2001, p.106]

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Setting aside the abhorrent "Original Prankster," which plumbs new depths of Yankovic appropriation--and throws in a stupid Rob Schneider sample to boot--the bulk of the album indulges The Offspring's preferable loud-fast-shrill side... Conspiracy Of One's crowd-pleasing novelty idiocy doesn't run much deeper than its single, and while that may disappoint those who enjoyed Americana, it makes it The Offspring's most tolerable record in years.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 32 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Andrea gave it a7:
Good record, better than Americana with a some great songs.

D L. gave it a10:
ha ha it's funny how all the small critics trying to make it big rate it low to get noticed! when will they learn not everyone has the same music taste. there should be a metacritic to rate the critics as nobody listens to them anymore!!! good album by the way

D H. gave it a9:
Good album- I don't care that the onion has rated it so low anyway as nobody pays attention to it anymore-ha.

Roadlord gave it an8:
This album is pretty good, but they have (much!) better ones (if you have to know - the excellent "Smash" and the awesome "Ixnay on the Hombre").

Ryan D gave it a10:
I hate everyone that says the offspring are fake punk, or there not pop enough, or there not emo enough. I hate to break it to you kids, but the Offspring is an ALTERNATIVE band, something that has been forgoton under years of market pressure and false advertisment, and i hope everyone who is a true fan of this music rembers that.

FiL gave it a10:
I love it

Chris S gave it a10:
EXCELLENT

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