Rancid (2000 album)

Rancid
Studio album by Rancid
Released	August 1, 2000 (2000-08-01)
Recorded	2000
Studio	Westbeach Recorders, Hollywood, California
Genre	Hardcore punk, skate punk, Punk Rock
Length	38:24
Label	Hellcat
Producer	Brett Gurewitz
Rancid chronology
Life Won't Wait (1998) Rancid (2000) BYO Split Series, Vol. 3 (2002)

Rancid (also known as Rancid 5 or Rancid 2000) is the eponymously titled fifth studio album by the American punk rock band Rancid. It is the second eponymous album and was released on August 1, 2000, through frontman Tim Armstrong's label, Hellcat Records. It was the band's first album released through Hellcat. It is Rancid's most hardcore offering to date, which was released as a follow-up to the more ska and reggae oriented Life Won't Wait. It spans 22 tracks in under 40 minutes, resulting in over 3/4 of the songs clocking at under 2 minutes. The Japanese version includes one bonus track, "Sick Sick World". Songs on the album make reference to famous gangster Al Capone, as well as Norse God Loki, John Brown, Ulysses S. Grant, Nelson Mandela, Charles Van Doren, Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Don Giovanni. Brett Gurewitz (Bad Religion) reunited with Rancid and became their producer for this album. It was 6 years since he co-produced the band's second album Let's Go (1994), although he engineered the band's third album, ...And Out Come the Wolves (1995). Rancid and Gurewitz would continue their collaboration for their next three albums, Indestructible, Let the Dominoes Fall and Honor Is All We Know.

On the record released to the public, there was a mastering error on the track "Poison" on the first run of CDs pressed, but was fixed in subsequent pressings and is not present on the vinyl copies of the record.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Robert Christgau	[2]
Rolling Stone	[3]
Select	[4]

The album received mostly positive reviews, though it failed to meet the success of Rancid's three previous albums. Rick Anderson of AllMusic noted "After several fine, if rather derivative, albums of ska-inflected punk rock, and after years of being criticized for relying unduly on gestures lifted from the Clash, Rancid has come roaring out with the harshest and most consistent album of their career. It wouldn't be entirely accurate to say that they've left their influences behind; rather, they've integrated them more completely and created a sound that is completely satisfying without having to prove anything about its own originality. That sound ends up being something like a cross between the Clash circa 1978 and the hardcore punk of the early-'80s Los Angeles scene. "Rwanda" is a stutter-step anthem of sympathy for a devastated country; "Corruption" has an atonal power-chord progression and headlong tempo that Minor Threat would have killed for; and "Blackhawk Down" is built on a ridiculously catchy descending bassline and a distinctly Oi!-flavored singalong chorus. No ska, no reggae, no dub, just 22 tracks in 38 minutes with barely a pause between songs and high tempos all the way. If you're looking for artistic subtlety, go back to the catalog; if all you need is a half-hour of undiluted adrenaline, you've come to the right place."^[5] Select gave the album a rating of three out of five, referring to the album as "infectious as they are insufferable".^[4]

Track listing

All tracks written by Tim Armstrong, except where noted. 

Personnel

• Tim Armstrong - lead vocals, guitar
• Lars Frederiksen - guitar, vocals
• Matt Freeman - bass, vocals
• Brett Reed - drums

References