ALBUM REVIEW: Rancid – Tomorrow Never Comes (Epitaph Records)
Rancid have forged a reputation over the last 30 years as one of the best and most influential punk bands of the modern era.
Tomorrow Never Comes is their 10th studio album, but their first since 2017’s Trouble Maker – six years which represents their longest gap between releases.
Most of the members have been busy with other projects – guitarist Lars Frederiksen with The Old Firm Casuals, bassist Matt Freeman with Charger, and frontman Tim Armstrong with Transplants and as The Interrupters’ producer.
Here, they seem in a hurry to make up for lost time, blazing through 16 songs in less than 29 minutes, making this their shortest album yet.
It’s produced by Epitaph label founder and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, who’s worked on all but two of their albums, and he captures Rancid’s signature East Bay sound perfectly.
As a band they’re tight as a gnat’s chuff, and there’s not an ounce of fat on these songs; not one makes it to the three-minute mark, 10 of them don’t make two minutes, and one doesn’t make it to 60 seconds.
There’s hardly a hint of ska, rockabilly or anything else here; it’s an out-and-out punk rock record, much more akin to their first couple of albums, 1993’s Rancid and 1994’s Let’s Go.
They come tearing out of the traps with Tomorrow Never Comes, with the full-throttle title track setting a tempo that never eases. At 2:25 it’s one of the longest songs here, and also one of the best.
The classic hard-riffing sound that Rancid are known is present and correct, and when you add Branden Steineckert’s pounding drums and the astonishing bass work of Matt Freeman – for me the best four-stringer in punk – you see why they have such a winning formula.
Armstrong’s growl of a voice is little more than a croak at times, but it’s one of the things that make Rancid so recognisable, and few others do call and response this well – a legacy of having three guys who are comfortable in singing lead.
The bangers come hurtling at you, one after another; the excellent single Devil In Disguise, New American, It’s A Road To Righteousness, Drop Dead Inn and Prisoners Song (no relation to the Dropkick Murphys track of the same name).
There’s a hint of Freeman’s Motorhead-like Charger in Magnificent Rogue and Hear Us Out, with the latter another contender for standout track, topped possibly only by Live Forever. When the Berkeley boys sing “we’re gonna live forever” anything seems possible.
Many self-appointed members of the punk police reckon Rancid lost their edge a few albums ago. Tomorrow Never Comes should make them eat their words. 8.5/10.
