Word: waits
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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With Life Won't Wait destined to accumulate praise and a broader listenership for Rancid, the choice to open the album with unnecessarily self-aggrandizing lyrics was a poor one. To make such a singular hampering flaw on a record is not horrible, but to make it intentionally conspicuous is a significant misjudgment. Notable on the first track, "Intro," the band is too aware of its own destiny for personal success and public appreciation; the group members mistakenly assume that moral suasion should be flaunted outright instead of embracing the more preferable latent variety conveyed through experiences and opinions...
Lead guitarists and vocalists Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederiksen have always been great story-tellers and commentators, "streetwise professor[s]" as they call themselves in "Bloodclot." Life Won't Wait is primarily a moment for reflection, though, while most of their previous material was solely observation. Lyrically, the new album works through the head instead of the eyes by focusing and expanding on such issues broached in "Avenues and Alleyways" from Wolves, stretching the criticism and recommendations across the whole record...
...least in term of ideology, and Armstrong spends a whole song contemplating the fleeting whirlwind journey of Rancid's radio success in "Backslide": "nobody knows me/I'm all alone/I gotta go/Hollywood bus stop and the party's over/I gotta go." Exemplifying the amazing lines exhibited throughout Life Won't Wait, crooning, "have you ever been looked at by your past and it will never let you go." You get the impression that the members of Rancid weren't perfectly aware of what they were getting into by releasing the modern rock smashes "Salvation," "Time Bomb" and "Ruby Soho." Playing into...
Every song on Life Won't Wait deservesan explanatory mention, but with 22 tracksconstituting over an hour of enjoyable musiccovering rainbow of topics, there is just notenough space. From love songs ("Who Would'veThought") to pleading peace among races andstereotypes, from questioning American values toattacking international social problems("Warsaw"), every subject and approach are worthclose attention. The familiar personal stories ofaddiction and relationships ("Hoover Street") areeasily followed by abstract digs ("Cash, Cultureand Violence") and thoughts on global resolve...
Pure reggae tunes are absolutely new to Rancid,although reggae influences were prominent onWolves and weave their way a bit morethrough the harmonies and crossover song thatpepper Life Won't Wait. Most prominent inconveying the genre are the title song, "WrongfulSuspicion" and "Coppers." Jamaican reggae starBuju Banton guests on these tracks, strengtheningthe new Rancid voice with an authentic tongue. OnLife Won't Wait, a good chunk of the vocalsare provided by Banton, although Armstronguniquely offers his gravelly, unadorned slur tothe mix. One of the best punk-reggae confluenceson the album, "Hooligans," will get you hoppingalong to the beat...