By Justin Cox
This album dropped right in the heart of my formative years. It was faster and grittier than Green Day (who was conquoring the world at the time) but maintained enough of those same pop sensibilities to hold the attention of my middle school self. I like it as much today as I did then, which can't be said for some of the other stuff I listened to at that time. (I'm looking at you, Offspring). Here’s some background on the album, via Wikipedia:
"…And Out Come the Wolves is the third studio album by the American punk rock band Rancid. It was released on August 22, 1995 through Epitaph Records. Rancid's 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 The Basketball Diaries) that ended with the band staying on Epitaph.
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 rock to retain much of its original fanbase. In terms of record sales and certifications, …And Out Come the Wolves is a popular album in the United States. It produced three hit singles: "Roots Radicals", "Time Bomb" and "Ruby Soho", that earned Rancid its heaviest airplay on MTV and radio stations to date. All the singles charted on Modern Rock Tracks. …And Out Come the Wolves was certified gold by the RIAA on January 22, 1996. It was certified platinum on September 23, 2004.
Along with Bad Religion's Stranger than Fiction, NOFX's Punk in Drublic, Green Day's Dookie and The Offspring's Smash,...And Out Come the Wolves helped revive mainstream popular interest in punk rock in the mid-1990s, signaled the initial rise of mainstream punk rock, and proved to be a massive success for the band, making them possibly the most popular American punk rock band to be signed onto an independent record label. Since 2004, the album has continued to sell millions of digital copies."
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