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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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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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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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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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Alternative PressThe 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]
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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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SelectThe record is permeated with an air of bashed-out-before-tea desperation. [Jan 2001, p.106]
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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.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 73 out of 80
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Mixed: 5 out of 80
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Negative: 2 out of 80
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Aug 15, 2010
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Feb 21, 2023
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Oct 27, 2012