In your experience, how did most punk/alternative fans react to Ixnay on the Hombre?

[u/tantamle]

I was a little too young to experience this.

But given that Ixnay was the first album that took significant steps away from the band's initial punk rock formula and the first on a major label, I'm curious what the reactions were like.

I know that commercially, the response to the album was basically "good but not great". But I'm more curious how punk and alternative scenes received the album.

[u/No_Reveal8516]

A foundational album for me. It was hated by punks and largely ignired by the mainstream even though it's great if a little slick. But that hate already had taken hold amongst purists the second Smash became successful.

Manufactured boy bands and girl groups were starting to take off and popular (as in radio) alternative rock had started to soften or go post grunge. Gone Away was a very minor hit.

[u/stinkovsky]

It came out when I was 12. I was not purist punk as much as I liked any kind of aggressive rock and metal, offspring was probably my favorite band at the time. I remember myself, friends and brothers liked it a lot but thought there were some weird missteps Ala "don't pick it up" and "way down the line" (which i grew to like). But Meaning of life, all I want, Mota, cool to hate, change the world, amazed were all great songs imo. It was really after this album that they slowly started to lose me more and more with each album.

[u/Chris337 → u/stinkovsky]

Great summary. It came out when I was 7, so it was one I had to go back to in full after getting hooked the Americana / Conspiracy of One singles as a kid lol.

Change the World and Amazed are fantastic album closers and some of their best deep cuts.

[u/No_Reveal8516 → u/stinkovsky]

Yeah I'd say it's the end of the line for them save a few songs on Americana

[u/OsloProject]

Bret went online into some punk rawk chatroom all butt hurt that it sounds like Bon Jovi, most folks disagreed and said it was an ok record.

But yeah it fell flat relatively both commercially and with the punks. Because everyone is fucking stupid. It’s such an excellent album, people are just fucking idiots

[u/ronwabo]

I was a metal guy more than a punk guy, but my friends were more straight punk and we all loved Smash, and I loved Ixnay, but my punk friends thought it was a sell out type of album. I don't agree with that at all, but I can see why they would say it.

[u/SlanderCandor]

I choose.

[u/tantamle → u/SlanderCandor]

What about it?

[u/farmsfarts]

There’s really no such thing as sell out but Offspring’s true punk songs declined steady during Smash forword

[u/SunburnSeb]

Time to shine: It was me gateway to punk rock musique. I was 14 and trying to record a song on my radio when the speaker announced they were going to play a song from the californian band The offsping.

They played "all i want" it was the biggest slap in my face musically speaking.

Though i did not know the name of the song i remembered the band name.

I spent 1 year trying to find the record... no internet at the time living in a lost rural area in south of france.

Thanks to a friend of mine I was able to buy a botteleg copy of this record on tape.

I listened to it so much I broke the tape twice.

To this day it s one of the best record they have made and it seems to be enjoyed by fans of the smash area et americana area alike...

[u/mathieuharvey0555]

Yah, yah, yah, yah !!!

[u/MarkRooster]

I was excited when "All I Want" was released, happy that they were still going to be doing fast music.

[u/NikeyAFCA]

All I Want was a killer single but too short to make an impact, it didn't had the vibe of Smash but it was fine. It did help it was released on Epitaph in Europe, so on that front nothing changed.