Year in Rock 2012 Bonus: The Year's 3 Biggest Disappointments

I didn't want to call this article the "worst", as that implies that the soulless, mindless drivel some bands have been trying to pass off as music is somehow better than the trio of bands singled out here; that's not the case. If I haven't talked about (insert random shitty synthpop and/or bro-rock band here) in 2012, it's because I simply don't care enough about them to sit through their songs, let alone write about them. This article is a chance to talk about three bands which have qualities I actually admire; it just so happened they, surprisingly or not so much, released albums I had at least moderate expectations for and found myself sad, shocked and/or disgusted at the lack of quality they brought in 2012.

Okay, so The Offspring haven't truly been on top of their game since their 1994 breakthrough Smash; they've had massive hits since, but at the expense of their integrity as artists (remember when they had a little of that?). Their 1998 smash Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) filled their bank accounts, but it also ruined them as a band. If you need proof, you got it in 2000 via Original Prankster, a truly awful attempt at forcing a second lightning strike (followed by Hit That, another failed attempt in 2003). Left to rot in a world that no longer took their serious side seriously and found their humourous side tiresome, The Offspring's goose was very nearly cooked before some strong singles from 2007's Rise And Fall, Rage And Grace impacted the charts, got their foot in the door with a new generation of fans and saw a sliver of faith restored in the band by some (myself included).

So, after five years of anticipation, what did they do for a follow-up?



An abominable flogging of Pretty Fly's corpse and alleged indictment of modern pop music, Cruising California fails miserably on both fronts; laughably dumb and not as much fun as it seems, it's also not as catchy nor as good as most modern pop, which a successful parody has to be.

That's disappointing enough, but when you listen to the rest of the album, it's rife with laziness and insecurity; they couldn't come up with anything reminiscent of their early days, so they rerecorded one of their old songs. More often than not, they sound like other, more successful bands; suffice it to say Foo Fighters and Rise Against were getting lots of play during the recording of this album. Days Go By is an apt but telling title for The Offspring's ninth album; named as such to remind us that the band is celebrating its twentieth anniversary, it also might as well serve as due notice that The Offspring's best days went by quite some time ago.

For the past decade, I've sung the praises of Liars. Their willingness to try new things has always been one of the qualities I've admired about them; the manic spookfest They Were Wrong So We Drowned is about as alienating an album as you're likely to ever listen to, and I took its inaccessibility as a challenge. Over repeated listens, I grew to love that album. At their core, they've always been a rock band (even at their strangest), and fifth album Sisterworld was a thrilling combination of their raw rock talent and experimental tendencies. This year's Wixiw is a wild stylistic detour, with electronics replacing nearly all instruments.

I applaud them for being fearless, and I wouldn't be so adverse to Wixiw if it wasn't so... dull. Much like Radiohead's disappointing The King Of Limbs, Wixiw finds a band I love spending too much time creating atmosphere and not enough time creating songs. Don't get me wrong, there are a few worthwhile tracks, most notably the sinister groove of Flood To Flood:



That's the sound of a band fucking with their sound without forgetting that they play instruments. So much of Wixiw is made up of processed, inorganic music that it's a hard album to like coming from the same band that produced some of the finest experimental rock albums of the last decade. It's possible that there's more to it, and that repeated listens would unveil some sort of epiphany; the problem is, unlike They Were Wrong So We Drowned, Wixiw isn't challenging enough or compelling enough to warrant repeat listens.

There's something to be said for Muse; it must have been difficult during their formative years constantly being pestered with Radiohead comparisons. The thing is, for a few years in the early '00s, they actually rose above it. Origin Of Symmetry might have sounded a bit like Radiohead, but it was a version of Radiohead we weren't ever getting again, so why not? 2003's Absolution saw them come into their own, displaying staggering prowess over their instruments and a blossoming knack for songwriting. It started to go a bit sideways with the hard left toward pop and overuse of orchestration found on 2006's Black Holes And Revelations, and it's only spiraled out of control since.

The 2nd Law is such a mess, I don't know where to begin; there's the Olympic theme song Survival, which would be marginally acceptable if not for some of the dumbest lyrics Matt Bellamy's ever penned. There's the much ballyhooed dubstep detours (including new single Follow Me), the ill-advised disco track (Panic Station), and the annoyingly schmaltzy lead single Madness.

I think I'll single out Supremacy from this album, for two reasons:

a) It's legitimately the best song on the album, and
b) It did not need the orchestra, but if you listen to it and imagine it as a song Bellamy pitched as a Bond theme to no avail, there's a little more enjoyment to be culled from it.



Here's hoping 2013 treats my blood pressure a little kinder.

REMINDER: More goodies upcoming! Come on back Boxing Day for the Top 25 albums list, and again on the 28th for a 2013 preview, featuring songs way better than the ones you just heard!