Rancid – …And Out Come the Wolves
welcome back to the Skaject folks! this week, our record is the 1995 release from Rancid, …And Out Come the Wolves.
this record grew on me quite a bit – im not a huge Tim Armstrong fan (he is not the only creative drive on this record but like, yknow), and these early Rancid releases have been energetic, and interesting thematically, but havent quite stuck the landing for me, and on first listen i was expecting …And Out Come the Wolves to go the same way.
but after a few listens, digging into the lyrics, and spending some time with it, there’s a lot here i came to appreciate.
Junkie Man is close to a “title track” here, in that the bridge name drops the title of the record. as the record opens with Maxwell Murder, it shouldnt be surprising that the thematic core of the record is about coping using drugs and all the things that surround that in Rancid’s lives and scenes. several songs, like Olympia, WA and Daly City Train, specifically call out folks in the band’s lives. Journey to the End of the East Bay discusses Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman’s time in Operation Ivy, Disorder and Disarray is about the San Fransisco punk scene in a post-Dookie world, and its hard not to read something biographical into the absent punk rock touring band of Ruby Soho, haha.
even with the focus on the granular (both personal as above and the tracks like Timebomb, which comment on social issues through the lens a specific person, real or imagined), i really enjoyed Avenues & Alleyways, a track that follows a longtime ska tradition and calls for unity and an end to racism in their spaces.
i do think the record runs a bit long – even though the runtime is only 49 minutes, its splitting that time up over 19 tracks and i think when a record does that it risks losing itself in the weeds if enough of those tracks dont fully stand out. it by no means fails here, but the cohesion felt strained at parts.
i will say this record is pulling in some excellent moments instrumentally, like the fucking bass solo on Maxwell Murder! ooh! delicious. i really dig Roots Radical – i like the sendup to classic ska and reggae, and i like how the song is about it but more about their relationship to those sounds and the folks in the scene around them. Timebomb is undeniably their biggest hit, and its hard NOT to dig the hook on this song.
so yeah. on the whole, real good record.
faves – Maxwell Murder, Timebomb, Lock, Step & Gone, Junkie Man, Journey to the End of the East Bay, Avenues & Alleyways
dislikes –
…And Out Come the Wolves – 8/10
next week, we’ll introduce Less Than Jake to the Skaject with Pezcore!
previous: Grand Prix | next: Pezcore
previous Rancid release: Let’s Go | next: Life Won’t Wait
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