Music / Smash (Album)

I may be dumb, but I'm not a dweeb
I'm just a sucker who's got no self esteem

Drivers are rude
Such attitudes
But when I show my piece
Complaints cease
Something's odd
I feel like I'm God
You stupid dumbshit goddamn motherfucker!

—"Bad Habit"

Smash is the third album released by American Punk Rock band The Offspring. It was released through Epitath Records on April 8, 1994.

Lead singer Dexter Holland decided to pick up a rhythm guitar for this one. Their recording sessions, which went through the first two months of 1994, would forge an album that, along with Green Day's breakthrough album Dookie, would finally bring punk rock to the mainstream in the United States.

Some critics saw a connection to the then-peaking Alternative Rock movement, with Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic describing the song "Come Out and Play" as "starting and stopping like Nirvana". He praised the entire album as "relentlessly heavy".

The album became an enormous commercial success as well, going sixtuple-platinum in the United States, peaking at #4 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It would sell 13 million copies worldwide, and hit #56 on the decade-end Billboard 200 album chart for The '90s.

Three singles were released to support the album: "Self Esteem", "Come Out and Play", and "Gotta Get Away". A fourth song, "Bad Habit", was only put on the radio. However, none were actually released commercially, and the rules for the Billboard Hot 100 at the time prevented them from charting. The three singles all hit the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart, and were all Top 10 on the Mainstream Rock chart.

Tracklist

1. "Time to Relax" (Intro) (0:25)
2. "Nitro (Youth Energy)" (2:27)
3. "Bad Habit" (3:43)
4. "Gotta Get Away" (3:52)
5. "Genocide" (3:33)
6. "Something to Believe In" (3:17)
7. "Come Out and Play"^note The 2008 remaster adds the subtitle "Keep 'Em Separated" (3:17)
8. "Self Esteem" (4:17)
9. "It'll Be a Long Time" (2:43)
10. "Killboy Powerhead" (2:02)
11. "What Happened to You?" (2:12)
12. "So Alone" (1:17)
13. "Not the One" (2:54)
14. "Smash" (10:42)

Personnel

• Greg K. – Bass guitar, backing vocals (uncredited for backing vocals)
• Dexter Holland – Lead vocals, rhythm guitar
• Noodles – Lead guitar, backing vocals
• Ron Welty – Drums

HEY! Are you troping back to me?

• Adults Are Useless: Alluded to with respect to juvenile delinquents in "Come Out and Play"
  Hey, they don't pay no mind
  If you're under 18 you won't be doing any time
• Cluster F-Bomb: "Bad Habit", as seen up top
• Delinquents: Subject of the song "Come Out and Play"
• Drives Like Crazy: The subject of "Bad Habit" doesn't seem to like other drivers, and seems to be one triggering away from Going Postal, given he keeps a gun in his car and isn't afraid to show it off.
• Epic Rocking: For all the relatively short tracks—six of them are under three minutes—"Smash" clocks in at nearly 11 minutes. The five tracks before it don't add up to that much.
• Extreme Doormat: The subject of "Self Esteem". He regularly gets stood up, his girlfriend cheats on him, and alternatively also comes over at random times for sex.
• Funny X-Ray: The beginning of the music video for "Self Esteem" includes a brief shot of someone doing the "la la"s in an X-ray machine, harkening back to the album cover.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Definitely the subject of "Bad Habit". And almost literally, considering he also drives armed.
• Love Martyr: Again, "Self Esteem"
  The more you suffer
  The more it shows you really care
  Right?
• Title Track: "Smash"