When they recorded their ninth album,
Trouble Maker, the venerable punks of
Rancid had been working together (give or take a drummer) as a band for 25 years. It would follow that maybe the record would be nostalgic, and it is. Both lyrically and musically, the 19 songs have the blurry feel of old Polaroids, as the bandmembers stick to their guns and dish out tales of past glories.
Tim Armstrong's weatherbeaten vocals are made for the task; his marbled crooning on "Telegraph Avenue" and ragged shouting on "An Intimate Close Up of a Street Punk Trouble Maker" are like flip sides of the same classic punk coin. He and the rest of the band crank out very
Rancid-sounding punk, all guitar riffs and pounding drums, with a side or two of ska ("Where I'm Going") and glammy heavy metal ("Say Goodbye to Our Heroes") for good measure.
Trouble Maker is exactly what a
Rancid fan would expect a
Rancid album to sound like, and the band delivers the requisite gutter chants, spiky attitude, and spit-covered microphones. ~ Tim Sendra