Rancid – "Tomorrow Never Comes"

Anyone fancy a round of Guinness at the Drop Dead Inn?

Unlike a lot of people, it seems, I actually kinda dug Rancid's daring '98 release "Life Won't Wait" in spite of an initial alienation over the obvious change of musical direction from that big lingering, energetic punk cornucopia to all that experimenting with reggae, dub, and whatnot. But as the band's self-titled follow-up two years later also didn't quench my thirst for a new "Junkie Man", "Listed M.I.A.", or "Maxwell Murder", I left them by the wayside like too many other groups to mention.

And, like with quite possibly a lot of those groups, leaving Rancid by said wayside was probably a grave mistake on my part. At least if we're to go by the level of quality on their 10th studio album, "Tomorrow Never Comes".

The self-titled opener gives you pretty much everything and anything you could want from not only a Rancid tune, but any damn punk rock tune. It's fast, raw, catchy, and intense. It's to-the-bone, and it's to-the-point. The energy is all-pervasive; the band unmistakably sounds like itself. Shit the style sounds like itself. This is what punk rock is all about. And fortunately, this pretty much sums up the entire album.

Rancid have a platinum-plated knack for those venerated melodies. Melodies that intoxicate you and stick with you for life, magically defying and transcending their unpretentious lo-fi surroundings.

However, there's more variation here than you'd think going by the above description. The album's biggest stand-outs and all-round best songs are the ones that seem to have been heavily influenced by the band's tour with east coast colleagues Dropkick Murphys in 2021. A song like "Devil in Disguise" could've easily been written by either the Murphys or Flogging Molly, its heady major-key folk chorus instantly and mercilessly going on a loop in your inner ear. It's hella catchy; it's hella memorable, and combined with a Rancid style verse of spitting out socially indignant lyrics like someone's life depended on it, it amounts to being pure, irresistible power.

Same thing goes for follower "New American", its lead guitar theme sounding like a riot fanfare, and its hooligan chorus vocals sounding like a revolutionary anthem. I promise you, this is the one that's gonna be stuck in your head after the first coupla spins. And the same thing goes for several others. Shit, during "Prisoners Song" I find myself pondering how these tunes could've easily been written for Bruce Springsteen's "Wrecking Ball" sessions. And that's a big compliment coming from yours truly.

All this, combined with ever-insane bass virtuoso Matt Freeman spicing up the vocals with some loveably indelicate growling shouted passages here and there, and with a few sprinkles of shorter, more hardcore-oriented tracks, collectively makes for all the variation that 16 punk rock songs need when they have an average length of less than 2 minutes. As they tend to do.

There really aren't a whole lot of other bands – in this or any other genre – who were ever able to compile such solid helpings of catchy, energetic, heartfelt, and durable tunes over and over.

Granted, the bulk of those best tunes on "Tomorrow Never Comes", like on most other albums, are to be found on side 1. But the lower bar here is high enough that you're never bored for a single second. And here's the whole thing, people: Rancid aren't just messing around with 3-4 chord progressions and passing them off for songs like other punk bands tend to do. Rather, like full-beard sporting frontman Tim Armstrong's cousin Billie Joe Armstrong's popular power trio Green Day, Rancid are writing actual songs, utilizing tonal changes and variations, differentiating between verse and chorus, and, not the least of all, having a platinum-plated knack for those venerated melodies. Melodies that intoxicate you and stick with you for life, magically defying and transcending their unpretentious lo-fi surroundings.

By face value, an album like this sounds as if there's probably not a whole lot to it. And granted, while the band members, now in their 50s, do have the professional experience that enables them to sustain this high level of songwriting, it's also a fact that there really aren't a whole lot of other bands – in this or any other genre – who were ever able to compile such solid helpings of catchy, energetic, heartfelt, and durable tunes over and over.

Sure, "Tomorrow Never Comes" is not a new "Let's Go" ('94) or "... And Out Come the Wolves" ('95). There's no new "Ruby Soho", "Roots Radicals", "Salvation", or "International Cover-Up" on here. But with a high bar like that, less definitely does it. And in this case, we're actually not talking a whole lot less.

Rating: 4.5 out of 6

Genre: Punk rock
Release date: 2/6/2023
Label: Hellcat / Epitaph
Producer: Brett Gurewitz