“And then something like ‘This Is Not Utopia’ is far more like, ‘Ah, man, the world, evil people are at odds,’” he says. And it’s really just an observation of what we’ve seen. “I think everyone’s a little wound up by it. “Without having to take sides politically, I don’t think anybody has been enjoying the last four years,” Noodles says of the title track. The album opens with one-two punch of “This Is Not Utopia” and the current single “Let The Bad Times Roll,” both of which are about as political as the Offspring get, offering critiques of socio-political dysfunction wrapped - in the case of the title track - in catchy singalong melodies. The album is rewardingly diverse in both sound and lyrics, something Noodles says came about through the long process of picking which songs to include and what order to run them. “Took us about 35 years to get it right, but I think we finally nailed it in this take.” That comes back to our Manic Subsidal days. “There’s a guitar break on ‘Hassan Chop’ that predates, I think, us being called the Offspring. “And then then some of the songs we steal from older stuff even before Offspring,” he says. The skeleton was there but the meat and bones, the meat and potatoes part of it has been fleshed out. Like, ‘We Never Have Sex Anymore,’ it’s probably a 20-year-old song but it’s changed a lot. “That’s certainly the oldest one that was finished,” Noodles says. “Coming For You,” for instance, was released as the album’s first single, complete with a music video of a clown fight club, six years before the album finally arrived. Given its lengthy gestation, it’s not surprising that some bits and pieces had been in the works for years, according to Noodles. “Let The Bad Times Roll” displays all the familiar strengths of the Offspring, from Holland’s vocals to Noodles’ crunchy riffing and the strong melodies throughout, across a dozen songs that feel both fresh and familiar. The record didn’t really start coming together until a couple of years ago when we just had a really creative period.”

“Whenever Bob (Rock, the band’s producer) was in town we’d hook up for a week or two in the studio. “We had been working in the studio, on and off, the whole nine years,” Noodles says.

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