out come

…And Out Come the Wolves

…And Out Come the Wolves is an album by the punk rock band Rancid, released in August 1995 (see 1995 in music).

Released soon after the breakthrough success of Green Day and The Offspring, Rancid's cult popularity and catchy songs made them the subject of a major label bidding war (hence the title, ...And Out Come the Wolves taken from a poem in Jim Carroll's Basketball Diaries) that ended with the band sticking with their indie label, Epitaph Records. With a sound heavily influenced by ska, which called to mind Tim Armstrong and Matt Freeman's past in Operation Ivy, Rancid became one of the few bands of the mid- to late-1990s boom in punk to retain much of its original fanbase.

In terms of record sales, …And Out Come the Wolves is a popular album. It produced three hit singles – "Time Bomb", "Ruby Soho" and "Roots Radicals" – that earned Rancid its heaviest airplay on MTV and radio stations to date. …And Out Come the Wolves has continued to sell consistently well in the thirteen years since its release, and on January 22, 1996 was certified gold by the RIAA. It was also certified platinum on September 23 2004.

The cover art is a tribute to Minor Threat, a landmark hardcore punk band, that originally used the image of a man with his head on his knees on steps on the self-titled EP.

Writing and production

During their holiday break in 1994, Rancid began writing songs for their third album. The band returned to the studio in February 1995 with producer Jerry Finn to begin work on their follow-up to Let's Go, booking three months of studio time in which to record the album.

Reception

...And Out Come the Wolves was released on August 22, 1995 and peaked at number 45 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Five months after its release, the album was certified gold.

The album received positive reviews, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic described the album as a "classic moments of revivalist punk". Erlewine praised the music as a "veiled reference to the attention the band gained" and claims the album "doesn't mark an isolationist retreat into didactic, defiantly underground punk rock". The album received a rating of four out of five stars, while "Time Bomb", "Ruby Soho" and "Roots Radicals" earned Rancid its heaviest airplay on MTV and radio stations to date.

The song "Maxwell Murder" is featured in the BMX video game Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX.

Track listing

All tracks are by Armstrong, Frederiksen & Freeman, with Shaken 69 frontman Erik Dinn joining in on the writing for "The 11th Hour."

"Maxwell Murder" – 1:25
"The 11th Hour" – 2:28
"Roots Radicals" – 2:47
"Time Bomb" – 2:24
"Olympia, WA." – 3:30
"Lock, Step & Gone" – 2:25
"Junkie Man" – 3:04
"Listed M.I.A." – 2:22
"Ruby Soho" – 2:37
"Daly City Train" – 3:21
"Journey to the End of the East Bay" – 3:11
"She's Automatic" – 1:35
"Old Friend" – 2:53
"Disorder and Disarray" – 2:49
"The Wars End" – 1:53
"You Don't Care Nothin'" – 2:28
"As Wicked" – 2:40
"Avenues & Alleyways" – 3:11
"The Way I Feel" – 2:34

Song information

The third track, "Roots Radicals", is a tribute to Roots reggae, a subgenre of reggae music known for political radicalism. Specifically, the band is acknowledging that "the roots, the reggae on my stereo" to which the band listened during their teenage years influenced their later work. The title lyric and the line "you know I'm a radical," refer to the Jimmy Cliff song " Roots Radical", which features the chorus, "I'm a radical, I'm a roots radical." One of the repeated verses references Desmond Dekker, one of the most successful roots musicians.

The album title is derived from the song "Junkie Man".