It has been a long nine years since The Offspring released their last album, Days Go By. Conflicts with a previous label, Columbia, contributed to the delay, as did the pandemic. Originally scheduled for release in 2020, Let The Bad Times Roll would’ve felt timely last year and is slightly dated now—but it’s better late than never.

The Offspring had plenty of time to work on this album, which should have led to more robust songs. However, more often than not they feel half-baked in premise amid a dissonant sound. At times, Dexter Holland and lead guitarist Noodles waiver back and forth on wanting to experiment with jazz, pop and orchestral elements—only to sharply jerk the audience back to their earlier skate-punk sound from albums like Smash and Ixnay On The Hombre. Still, while Let The Bad Times Roll is late to the table, the things the album gets right, it gets perfectly right.

The album opens strong with “This Is Not Utopia,” which melodically shares some things in common with “Slim Pickens Does the Right Thing and Rides the Bomb to Hell,” albeit with a different sociopolitical focus, particularly on how media and hysteria feed into the distinctly American fear-culture zeitgeist that has come to define the country over the last 20 years. The title track expands its political focus with a satirical takedown of the Trump administration, yet the critique comes a bit late, more than three months into a new presidency. The song delivers a pop-rock aesthetic with a more upbeat and bouncy melody to contrast the cynical lyrics, diverging greatly from the previous song.

“Behind Your Walls” begins with a soft solo electric guitar melody that expands into a somber and longing song that details the story of two people, one whom is closing off from the world and the narrator due to an increasingly negative outlook, while the narrator is desperately attempting to reach them.

“Army Of One” is a fusion of surf-rock with punk, delivering an anthemic call to action from the listener—almost as if to say that even if the odds are against us, we need to fight the good fight. “Coming For You,” which was first released as a single in 2015, follows the more hard-rock influence of later Offspring albums like Rise and Fall and Rage and Grace. It has a marching tempo accentuated with clapping, a la “Rock and Roll” and is a tailor-made sports anthem.

The album’s low point comes in the form of “We Never Have Sex Anymore,” a bizarre, jazz-influenced number that details insecurities of an empty marriage. It’s almost as if Dexter Holland rewrote “Self Esteem,” but for an aging demographic of impotent boomers who are teetering on divorce. Holland awkwardly wails about his desire to be hated by his wife if he can’t sleep with her.

We then get into the bizarre addition of a cover of the classical 1875 composition “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” a minute-long track that goes… exactly how you’d expect it to. It’s not unenjoyable or terribly done, but its placement on the album lacks any connection to its other themes. Was it meant as a joke? Unclear. But it derails the flow of the album.

Returning to traditional punk aesthetics, “The Opioid Diaries” is a scathing critique of the opioid crisis in the U.S., and the tendency of medical providers to push pills in lieu of quality care. There’s a marching pace guitar breakdown about halfway through, and while it doesn’t quite gel with the rest of the song, it doesn’t hurt it either. “Hassan Chop” continues to deliver the older-styled Offspring sound, with Holland delivering half-spoken and half-screamed vocal performance as opposed to melody. It’s perfect for moshers to thrash around in the pit. The album also includes a new version of hit “Gone Away,” over a serene piano melody with orchestral backing on the chorus.

Follow editor Tim Hoffman at Twitter.com/hipsterp0tamus.