Rancid are one of those bands that have been going for so long that they’ve gotten to that point in their career where no one really bats an eyelid when it takes them six years to write a new record. Since the release of ‘Indestructible’ back in 2003, the band have split up and reformed, dabbled in side-projects – some successful, some not so – and had the obligatory line-up reshuffle (original drummer Brett Reed quit the band in 2006). So how has such a torrid time affected one of punk rock’s most essential acts?
In short, it hasn’t. Make no mistake about it, ‘Let The Dominoes Fall’ is the Rancid we all know and love, right down to the very core. Armstrong’s vocals are as lazy and slack-jawed as ever, and the likes of ‘New Orleans’ and ‘Skull City‘ are quintessentially punk rock in all their simplistic, power-chord glory. Lyrically, they still mix up politics (see ‘Liberty and Freedom’, ‘The Bravest Kids’) with more personal, day to day issues (‘The Highway’, ‘This Place’), and while the ideas and the music may be recycled, it all still comes across as fresh and enticing, 18 years on from the band’s inception.
At times it’s a bit testing, and there are frustrating points where the band could have pushed themselves a little bit further (the chorus of ‘Disconnected’ just is Ruby Soho, and that’s just one of many such gripes), but such points are more a constraint of the genre as opposed to the band’s unoriginality. While there may be only so far bands such as Rancid can take things musically, it’s comforting to know that after all these years, they don’t need to. ‘Let The Dominoes Fall’ pushes no boundaries or envelopes, yet it’s still enjoyable enough to remind us exactly why we all fell in love with the band in the first place.
Is this Rancid‘s best album to date? Probably not. But after all this time, Rancid don’t need to be writing the best album of their career. ‘Let The Dominoes Fall’ is enough to prove this band are still relevant, and while there’s nothing new here, more of the same is completely fine by me.
Andy R