Rancid- ...And Out Come The Wolves

I came into this album not expecting much. I have and love ‘Let’s Go’ by Rancid and knew ‘...And Out Come The Wolves’ as the multi-million seller and thought this would be a massive sell out album. Obviously I was a little confused. I took the Minor Threat aping cover the wrong way and thought it was a shameless attempt at trying to get some cool points rather than the honouring of their heroes it probably is. I thought their deliberation over whether to sign to a major label was a proper deliberation and did not realise that this album came out a little over a year from their previous, so the deliberation probably didn’t take too long.

Having said that, it is obvious that Rancid had tempered their attitude slightly to be more commercial. The average song length is over two minutes making them more radio friendly. There songs are a little less Hardcore Punk and a bit more Reggae-Clash-’77 Punk inspired. Still all the songs here their mark and will have you singing aloud after only a couple of listens. My personal standout track in ‘Junkie Man’ that has an all-star performance from original Punk poet Jim Carroll.