Rancid – Tomorrow Never Comes
(Epitaph)
Reviewed by Sarah Kidd.
It’s been six years. Yup six long years since Rancid dropped an album. They say good things take time, and if Tomorrow Never Comes is anything to go by, then that adage is very much correct.
Produced by Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion and of course the founder of Epitaph Records, Rancid have frankly never sounded better. Sure, they may be a hell of a lot older now, but they have lost none of that punk vibe that courses through their veins at ninety miles an hour.
Their tenth album to date also interestingly clocks in as one of their shortest, at just twenty-eight minutes and forty-seven seconds (to be exact), first run through whizzes by at breakneck speed. But it is also undoubtedly one of its charms. This isn’t an album where the boys slow it down and ease you into it, this record is a statement.
From the opening title track that hits you straight in the jaw, it’s those delicious guitar lines and of course Armstrong’s distinctive vocals punching through that draw you in immediately. It’s energetic, bouncy and with just the right amount of venom to make you want to get into a little bit of trouble.
Second track in ‘Mud, Blood and Gold’ opens with a catchy guitar line, with the entire track sounding like a quick chant that barely lasts just over a minute. But again, it is perfect just as it is and a great lead in to one of the highlights of the album ‘Devil in Disguise’, a song that displays some of Armstrong’s best lyricism and a chorus that you will find yourself humming as you stomp your ways round the streets.
This truly is an album that has stuff all filler (and let’s face it, most albums have a couple of songs that you tend to skip after a few run throughs). ‘New American’ has an infectious guitar riff that has a decidedly little Irish tinge to it, and makes you want to grab a beer and have a good old mosh in the middle of the local pub, the song itself a tale of history with lyrics that speak of “Eddie the Butcher” and working “the Klondike in the ice and snow”.
Continuing on with their history lessons, the very next track ‘The Bloody & Violent History’ is all about The Barbary corsairs and the capture of merchant ships and repeated raids of coastal towns between Spain and Italy. Not subject matter you would possibly expect from a band such as Rancid, but these are more worldly men now, they have lived a life and it is obviously a topic that captured their attention. Educational and a kick ass tune, who could ask for more?
Drum lines throughout the album are fast and furious (especially on ‘Don’t Make Me Do It), as if anything less could really be expected from Branden Steineckert. Lars Frederiksen is in fine form, that distinctive gravel infused voice coming through in the backing vocals and complimenting Armstrong and of course the bass lines of the oldest member of Rancid Matthew “McCall” Freeman (Operation Ivy) are just as taut as ever.
Will Tomorrow Never Comes hit the highs of arguably their greatest album ‘…And Out Come the Wolves’? Well, no, but we are also talking nearly thirty years down the line since that album came out. The boys have evolved, they have seen and experienced life and in many ways that comes through in each of the tracks. Rancid are still punk, just with a few more years under the belt – but it has dulled none of their ferocity, their influences still shining through (anyone else hear the Dead Kennedys ‘Nazi Punks Fuck Off’ in that intro to ‘Hear Us Out’?).
Sixteen tracks of glorious Rancid-ness. Do yourself a favour and sink your teeth into it.
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