Ixnay on the Hombre

Following the wildly successful album Smash, The Offspring’s fourth album Ixnay on the Hombre had a tall order to fill.  Radio stations filled the airwaves with hits such as "Come Out and Play" and "Self Esteem."  Two years after Smash is when we would find out what they were up to.  What they felt was a good successor to, at the time, their best-selling record.

Released in February 1997, Ixnay on the Hombre debuted in that post-grunge era, which was a brief point in time during the mid-late ‘90s where alternative rock stations looking for new music had no sub-genre to focus on.  Grunge, while still having huge playtime, was a fading star.  With Nirvana’s tragic ending and Soundgarden looking like it was on the brink of a breakup, the grunge movement was winding down.  Nu metal, which ruled from around late 1998 – 2003, was still a while away from entering the scene and making everyone crazy-angry.  If anything, this was prime time for The Offspring to release a new album.

It is interesting to note that Ixnay was the only album to have a title that was more than one word.  Before it there was The Offspring (I know, that’s two words, but you know what I mean), Ignition, and Smash.  In hindsight you can see it as a flag of sort that marks the end of the punk sound the band was known for to the more pop-punk sound that the band created during the records following it.

While the band members where the same since the first album, the record company was different.  Since the late ‘80s they were with Epitaph, a record label founded by Brett Gurewitz from Bad Religion.  Due to disagreements between the label and the band, they parted ways and signed with Columbia Records to begin a fresh start with them.

After opening with a snarky disclaimer chuckling at the Parental Advisory stickers placed on records labeled with explicit content --which Inxay came with --, and how it humorously tries to shield youngsters from lyrics that may depict the harsh realities of life and how they may promote thought provoking questions, the album’s first two songs "The Meaning of Life" and "Mota" immediately bring those realities front and center as if to compliment the disclaimer and show their case for why the Parental Advisory sticker is silly.

With these two songs, you’re greeted with fast music and quick lyrics.  The guitar is the instrument that sticks out the most with these two tracks and really sets the correct mood you need to be in when listening to this album.  Kind of like how the first few songs of a concert would normally do.

However, when it comes to true speed, the track "All I Want" is the one to look for.  It’s short, loud, and incredibly fast.  With lyrics encouraging the quiet ones that are bottling up their anger and opinions, it symbolizes the violent actions of a cork bursting from a bottle and having all that pressure alleviate all in one short moment.  "All I Want" is also the debut single released for the album, which got a lot of airplay in late ‘96/early ’97.

To contrast "All I Want," "Gone Away" slows things down a bit.  That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, and actually, I really like this song.  Sure, it does differ from what The Offspring is best known for, but this is an excellent example of switching things up but also keeping the familiar sounds which are associated with the group.  It’s has some gravity to it and tells the emotions of someone who just lost an important person in their life.  Love the intro to this where it’s just the drums followed by the slower paced guitar chords.

Accompanying this song is a music video that really sets the visual tone for the track.  For starters, instead of everyone wearing t-shirts that this Southern California band is known for, they instead are all wearing collared shirts (with the exception of Ron the drummer who’s shirtless), a simplified way of showing the more seriousness of the video.  It’s also interesting to see how all the members are separated from each other, which I guess represents the loneliness one feels when in this situation.  Finally there is the brightly glowing light bulb that Dexter sings to.  It’s the only source of light in the dimly lit slaughter house and acts as an emblem for the person that was lost.

Tracks 5 and 6, "Cool to Hate" and "Leave It Behind," have a lot of angry emotions behind them.  I guess you can expect that with a song titled with the word "hate" in it; however, that would be true if you take the song at face value.  I buy the opinion that “Cool to Hate” is a sarcastic/satirical take on the trend of people hating everything.  This is pointed out in the line, “I'm only happy when I'm in my misery.”  The actual angry song is "Leave It Behind" where there seems to be friction between two friends.  Well, former friends, I guess.  I get a sense there is a heavy amount of emotion in this song and the lyrics are the cause for it to radiate with white hot heat whenever I listen to it.

"Me & My Old Lady"…oh my!  Lots of sexy talk in there, but the relationship between the two seems to be not based on love but pleasuring each other’s desires.  Also, the guitar parts of this song are really reminiscent of "Come Out and Play."

Of the more upbeat sounding songs on Ixnay is “I Choose.”  With it, you get a catchy tune that includes hand clapping for rhythm with a cool guitar solo near the middle where Dexter goes all rock star on us.  I get the theme for the song revolves around life and how you live it, but I’m unclear whether it’s discussing someone’s suicide or living life to its fullest.  If I had to pick, I would select the latter because of this line towards the end, “And I'll never know when I hit the ground.”  This implies that since, with suicide, you know when your life will end while this indicates it will be an encounter that he’ll never see coming because he’s too busy partying life to its fullest.  Points go to Dexter for including a reference to "A Perfect Day for Bananafish."

The music video for “I Choose” is the first and only video directed by Dexter himself.  It takes place at an airport where we see a young man walking through it to get to a plane.  While walking, he sees a lot of interesting characters hanging around the terminal.  The band is also seen walking through it and gets on the same plane as the young man does.  It’s a fun video to watch, to say the least.

An intermission follows “I Choose,” and the second half of the album really accelerates due to a number of short songs; one of which is “All I want.”  "Don't Pick It Up" is another fun track (instrumental wise) where we hear of few stories about what not to do.  They include things like picking up dog poop, catching a disease, and dealing with a transvestite.  Obviously all great life tips to keep in mind.

The broken home theme I hear in most Offspring albums is heard here with "Way Down the Line."  Basically an explanation how humans turn into what their parents are, but focused on the negative sides such as kids who get beat will beat their kid, and kids that were abandoned by their father will get with someone that will leave and abandon their own kids.

Probably the most beautiful song from Ixnay is "Amazed."  Dexter’s singing really shines here and the harmony in the chorus gives the song an extra punch.  Some say it’s regarding suicide, but I think it’s more about someone hating the world because everyone is fitting the trends and doesn’t care about anyone but themselves.  But I have no solid clue as to what the phrase “shiny face” means, so I can’t make a solid case on this.  The last track "Change the World" seems to follow the political meaning of the album’s title where Dexter says it means “’fuck authority’ or ‘fuck the man.’”  Looking back at when the album was recorded in 1996, this was a general election year so many were on the campaign trail touting how they were going to change the world.  I can imagine a punk band like The Offspring probably didn’t see Washington and local governments with a positive outlook, so this song was dedicated to all the fat cats they were disgusted with seeing on the TV all that year.

Tracks from Ixnay had a lot of time on the radio but would be eclipsed a year later in 1998 when the juggernaut Americana dropped with the hit single "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)."  After that, Ixnay became this void that was between the pop songs that began with Americana and the grouping of albums from their earlier days that got them successful.

The album did not go ignored as a few songs from it were used in Sega’s arcade game Crazy Taxi.  Anyone who’s played this game would often make a reference to the song that begins with the lyrics “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,” which is “All I want.”  In addition, “Way Down The Line” and “Change The World” were used for the soundtrack, too.  Interesting to note that Bad Religion was also picked for the OST, which seems odd considering how there was some heat between The Offspring and Brett concerning the band’s label contract.  In any case, it was a great game with a great soundtrack and Sega somehow made it all work well together.

Ixnay on the Hombre may not be the bands most popular album, but it’s the one I enjoy listening to the most.  I normally would select a few songs from a record as my favorites, but this is the rare occasion where I can’t because the whole album is freak’n amazing.  If you have never listened to Ixnay and you’re a fan of punk music, you need to do yourself a favor and check this one out.  You can thank me later.

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