Reissue!

‘Americana’ is the fifth studio album by the American punk rock band the Offspring, first released on November 17, 1998. Following a worldwide tour in support of its previous album, ‘Ixnay on the Hombre (1997),’ the Offspring commenced work on a new album.

Front man Dexter Holland told Rolling Stone in August 1998 that, “I wanted to write a record that wasn’t a radical departure from what we’ve done before. I feel like we have managed to change stuff up from Ignition to Smash to Ixnay. We’re in a place where we more or less set the boundaries where we can do a lot of stuff without having to stretch it out farther … and do a swing song or something.”

Recording took place from July to September 1998 at Eldorado Recording Studios with producer Dave Jerden, who also produced Ixnay on the Hombre.

On the album’s direction, Holland told Guitar World, “The idea wasn’t to reinvent the wheel. We expanded our horizons on our last record and that’s okay, but I don’t feel like you have to be a completely different band on every record.”

Americana was a major success, debuting at number six on the Billboard 200 with around 175,000 copies sold in its first week and peaking at number two for two nonconsecutive weeks, spending 22 nonconsecutive weeks in the top 10, becoming the Offspring’s highest ever chart position.

The album contains the hit singles “Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)”, “Why Don’t You Get a Job?” and “The Kids Aren’t Alright”.