The Offenders - The Offenders FLAC download

The Offenders "self titled" 1980 test pressing LP reviewThe test pressing of this LP that surfaced has an alternate track listing to the final release. It has 11 songs on it (instead of the 10 songs on the final LP) and the songs are in a totally different order. Since I don't have the final actual release, I thought I would type up some notes/review this LP track by track. While two members of this band went on to heavy metal greatness in later bands, (Randy Castillo - Lita Ford, Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue,) (Randy Rand - Autograph), this album is NOT a heavy metal album by any means. In fact, stylistically it's all over the place. While I would say it's mainly a power pop/hard rock album, it also has songs that are reggae and country, so it's really hard to classify. An interesting piece of musical history though, and definitely worth picking up if you see it around! Side 1:"Running For The Lights": A poppy hard rock song with a catchy chorus, has some good guitar work on it. Sounds like a Rick Springfield song with a slight power pop edge. Very commercial, and I'm not using that term in a bad way."Same Old Run Around": Another powerpop hard rock song that sounds very 1980, also has a good chorus- very standard song and arrangement. The first two songs are very similar, if the whole album had stayed on this track it might have been a good thing."Mary Ann Jamaica": This is where things unravel at an astonishing pace. This song has some sort of reggae-ish riff that literally sounds like a No Doubt song or something, it's awful. I mean, really really awful. There is a slightly decent bridge with rock solo thrown in the middle of the song, but unfortunately it goes back to the reggae jams."You're All I Want": This is the best song on the LP, a killer guitar riff with a good hook and chorus too. Not heavy metal by any stretch of the imagination, but good hard rock on this one. If this song had been released as a 7" with "Running For The Lights" on the B-Side it probably would've been a very collectible US hard rock single."Repitition": This is their attempt at a witty jab at the song writing process and what it takes to "get a hit" in which they basically sample a bunch of songs mixed into one tune, everything from The Who, to Hendrix, to Them. This is probably the second worst song on the LP. Very strange spelling of repetition too, wonder if it was intentional? Side 2:"Long Distance": A decent power pop/hard rock song, but again- they for some reason felt the need to put the lick from Rolling Stones "Paint it Black" in the middle... not sure what their obsession was with doing this?"Danger Zone": (not on final release?) This song has a bit of a reggae-ish bouncy riff too mixed with a new wave/power pop vibe. I don't think this song made the final release, so might only be available on this test pressing?"Doghouse": Another "joke" song that is sort of country or something, about a guy getting in trouble with his girlfriend or something? Might have been funny to somebody at the time, but not something that I personally enjoy on this LP."Linda Linda": Sort of a bluesy boogie rock riff on this one, with lots of slide guitar- it sounds like they heard a Status Quo album and wrote one in that vein. The riff ended up being used by the Rods later on a song "Gettin' Higher", which I'm sure was purely coincidental- it sounds like a standard blues progression. "Smooth Operator": (not on final release?) This is another song that doesn't seem to have made the final LP releases- so may only be available on this test pressing. It's more of the same hard rock power pop stuff here, catchy chorus "You're a smooth operator, and I fall for you every time!""Friction": Another hard rock/power pop jam, again- about half the album is in this vein, so it seems to have been the main musical direction of the band- but they clearly didn't know how to focus on it. This is probably the second best song on the LP, it's got a great foot stomping Slade-style drum beat that really carries the song.