Reviewed by: Rox 25 August, 1998
For The Record (no pun)
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The last 12 months has seen two of the better modern punk bands in the scene today pay indirect homage to the Clash.
In Nimrod, Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day said it was time for them to record their London Calling. Rancid with Life Won’t Wait try and fail miserably to record their version of Sandanista.
Life has 7 worthwhile tracks out of the 22 on the disc, but none of them stand out as anything but very good. They try some interesting fusion stuff, but it falls so far short of what they are capable of.
At first I thought I was jaded by the whole sk-unk revival that ironically they helped start. I’ve listened to this record 11 times trying to find something positive to say, and still can say little other than this is just an average album.
Strummer and Jones had the ability to grow musically and lyrically, and so do Billie Joe et al. With the Clash you felt like they believed in what they were doing. They tried a lot of things, some of which didn’t work, but a lot of what they tried was very successful at pushing punk where it had never been before.
Rancid seem to fall back on their rep and think that this crap will somehow fly. They set their minds on doing something that they didn't know how to actually do well, covering talent-based blemishes with faux cockney attitude.
What has happened to Rancid is almost sad. Upon reflection though what has happened to them reflects not only on the current state of music, but also on the demise of punk 20 years ago. They have been unable to develop beyond a basic punk band. Try as they might to be the Clash, they fall dramatically short, and if I were either Joe Strummer or Mick Jones I think I’d bitch
slap every one in Rancid.
In the battle of the Ex-Op Ivy bands the nod must go to Green Day. Billie Joe and the boys no doubt lack the street cred that Rancid exudes, but Rancid doesn’t possess the talent that GD do.
Life Won’t Wait is a disappointment. Following Out Come The Wolves, I had expected much, and was sorely let down.
There are some good songs on Life, unfortunately much of it is contrived cockney punk that tries too hard. The band has tried to fuse a lo-fi punk sound with their traditional ska/reggae overtones. The record is not bad per se, it’s just cliché as hell.
After the SXSW music fest, the band hurried back to the studio to re-record some of the material. They should have stayed longer.
The album will be a hit with the suburban punk crowd. I went through the first phase of one-dimensional punk bands, and am saddened to see it beginning again with Rancid.
"Leciester Square", "Bloodclot", "Hoover Street", "New Dress", "Who Would Have Thought", "Wrongful Suspicion" and "Something In The World Today" are all very catchy tunes,
but very bland. You’re saying "Hey Baldy, that’s seven good songs...what up with the slagging?" A lot of it has to do with the fact that the other songs on the record are so abysmal, that it has the impact of diminishing the overall quality of the record.
Hopefully the band will be able to grow out of recording songs for 14-year-olds, but with this record they are stuck in a mini-mart market.