Search results
- “Radio” Let’s Go! (1994) is full of micro-sized blasts of melodic street punk that motor their way through your eardrums, but “Radio” manages to stand head and shoulders above the other raging, punk rock bruisers in the set.
- “Ruby Soho” …And Out Come the Wolves (1995) If you attended high school at any point in the mid-to-late 1990s, you’ll recognize “Ruby Soho” as the anthem for the kids who weren’t invited (or, more accurately, didn’t care to go) to prom.
- “Olympia, WA” …And Out Come the Wolves (1995) Side A of …And Out Comes the Wolves is about as good as punk got in the 1990s, and “Olympia, WA” represents its high-water mark.
- “Salvation” Let’s Go! (1994) The fact that “Salvation” marked the start of Rancid’s critical and commercial ascent in popular music by itself makes the song a necessary addition to this list.
- Paul Brannigan
- Ruby Soho (1995) At their best, Tim Armstrong’s lyrics conjure up wonderfully vivid portraits of life on the margins, with bruised hearts and wandering souls seeking out connections as the world swirls around them.
- Time Bomb (1995) The biggest single of Rancid’s career, this ridiculously catchy ska-punk anthem, powered by a vamping Hammond organ, taps into both gangster movie imagery and ska iconography to tell a tale of a rebellious kid fighting his way up from the streets to become a respected, feared and ultimately marked for death underworld king-pin.
- Radio (1994) Co-written by Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and Rancid bassist Matt Freeman (surely the finest four-stringer in punk since Mike Watt), Radio is perhaps Rancid’s signature composition, a pure love song to the power of music, which will strike a chord with anyone who’s ever had their life transformed by a spinning black vinyl disc.
- Roots Radicals (1995) Drawing an explicit line from Jimmy Cliff and Desmond Dekker through to Stiff Little Fingers and beyond, this joyous hymn to roots reggae, punk rocker and “moon stompers” is an evocative sketch of a formerly lost teenager realising he’s found his spiritual home in music, and sharing that new-found sense of wonder and awe with his best friends.
- Junkie Man (…And Out Come the Wolves, 1995) “Tim does the speaking part, but I don’t know if its from anything. All it really sounds like to me is something someone on drugs would see or think up.
- Let Me Go (Rancid, 2000) “Let Me Go” carries traces of the ska rhythms which color the band’s most recent work but even this is steamrollered by the sheer fury of the surroundings.”
- Time Bomb (…And Out Come the Wolves, 1995) “Rancid manages to transcend their influences however because they know how to make great hook filled songs.
- Radio (Let’s Go, 1994) “There’s a line in “Radio” which could stand for Rancid’s whole philosophy: “When I got the music, I got a place to go”. It’s a hell of a rallying call and one my teenage self would have totally related to.”
- … And Out Come the Wolves (1995) This is the worst to best of Rancid, but, to be perfectly honest, were we to do the worst to best of Epitaph Records, or even punk rock, …And Out Come the Wolves would still be sitting here at the top of the pile.
- Life Won’t Wait (1998) Rancid have been compared to The Clash a lot. Back when their fourth album was released, with the band having gone to Kingston, Jamaica to record parts of it, the naysayers lined up to sneer that it was more Clash cosplay, just a riff on that band’s 1980 effort Sandinista.
- Let’s Go (1994) The first Rancid album to feature the talents of former UK Subs guitarist Lars Frederiksen, Let’s Go is the moment where the Rancid that we know and love were truly born.
- Indestructible (2003) In the aftermath of Armstrong’s well publicised split from his then-wife, Brody Dalle of The Distillers, Rancid returned with an album that musically harked back to the most beloved period of their career.
- The Wolf
- Sidekick
- Something in The Word Today
- As Wicked
- Avenues and Alleyways
- Fall Back Down
- Root Radicals
- Radio
- Ruby Soho
- Journey to The End of The East Bay
Kicking off this list is a track from 1998’s Life Won’t Wait. This is one of the best tracks on the album, being one of its more straight-up punk tracks. The band decided to enter the studio in 1997 whilst they were still enjoying the success of the third album, 1995’s …And Out Come the Wolves. It would be the band’s final release on Epitaph for se...
This two-minute stomper is from 1994’s Let Go and tells the story of a vigilante superhero named Wolverine (a name that sounds a little familiar…). This album was the first to feature Frederiksen on guitar. It peaked at number 97 on the Billboard 200 after more interest was brought to it after the success of other nineties punk bands such as Green ...
Life Won’t Wait saw the band go in several different directions after making three albums of straight-up punk, with this record containing songs that were influenced by ska, rockabilly and there was even some singer/songwriter orientated material. This song, however, is classic angry punk, with lyrics raging at the general state of the world, which...
Here is the first track on this list from Wolves which is regarded by many to be Rancid’s most classic album. This song is about violence, death, and poverty found within inner cities and how many not affected choose to ignore it. This is one of the most crucial albums along with Green Day’s Dookie and The Offspring’s Smashthat propelled the punk g...
It is safe to say that Wolvesis a classic album and a top ten Rancid songs list needs a fair few cuts of it. The question however is: which ones? There are no bad tracks on it and selecting them is very difficult, as when you are writing a list dissecting the best of a band’s career, all of the songs obviously cannot all be from the same album! Wit...
This was the first single to be released from 2003’sIndestructible where it reached number thirteen on the US Modern Rock Tracks. This is about the breakup of Armstrong’s marriage to Distillers frontwoman Brody Dalle, how it affected him, and how his friends helped him get through it. The video featured cameos from Kelly Osbourne and Good Charlotte...
Here is a track that was first released as a single in 1994 and was then re-recorded and released as the first single from Wolves. It reached number twenty-seven on the Billboard Modern Rock Charts. As the title would suggest, the song draws from the band’s reggae influence which it mixes with an early punk reminiscent of bands such as Stiff Little...
This song from Let’s Go was co-written with Green Day vocalist Billie Joe Armstrong which is likely why it has a more poppy sound than a lot of Rancid’s material. Rancid, despite being considered peers of Green Day and The Offspring has never been considered pop punk, unlike those bands. When you consider that this was released the same year as GD’...
Just off the top spot is a track that is widely considered to be a Rancid classic that was the third and final single from Wolves that reached number thirteen on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks. Here is a song where the band’s career-long comparisons to The Clashare made very easy to understand, as Armstrong very much wears his influence from Joe ...
At the top spot of the list is yet another track from Wolves.The song is very melodic and emotional and is actually a nostalgic look back at Armstrong and Matt Freeman’s (who puts in a brilliant bass performance here) time in their previous band Operation Ivy. The reason for writing it? Rancid is a band that always makes a point of never forgetting...
I hope this sparks some discussion, and reminds you of some awesome songs you may not have heard in a while! Here they are from #100 all the way to #1. Enjoy. 100: Out Of Control. 99: Devil's Dance. 98: I Got Them Blues Again. 97: Ivory Coast.
People also ask
Does Rancid have any good songs?
What is rancid's most classic album?
How many songs does Rancid have on Trouble Maker?
What are Rancid best known for?
Are Rancid a good band?
What is rancid's best ska song?
With 1998’s Life Won’t Wait, Rancid broadened its sound to include rockabilly, dub reggae, soul, and more. The album earned the group comparisons to The Clash, who’d explored similar styles...
