New Rancid Single: "Last One to Die"

This track was previewed on the 7th online (what's today?-- erm, looks like I'm a few days late) and on the 6th on KROQ. This is the first single off Rancid's perpetually-delayed 7th album, Let the Dominoes Fall, which is slated-- no longer tentatively it looks like-- for a June release.

I can't lie. I've only listened to a few times while writing this and I am pretty unimpressed. The beat is plodding and the music is uninteresting and a little messy. This could be okay, but in light of how exciting and groundbreaking Rancid has been in the past, I really hope that they chose the one milquetoast song off the album and released it as the first single as a joke. There's nothing even catchy about it; the anthem is uninspiring, just a trailing off progression that doesn't get the listening or the song anywhere.

Maybe it will grow on me, but if this is what the album is going to be like, it's just retracing old ground that a group this mature shouldn't be touching with a ten-foot pole. That's not to say there's anything wrong with the classics, but this isn't taking time-tested musical tropes and putting them to good use. It feels like things are on autopilot, and even though Tim tries to excite the listener with a few "come on!"s near the end, the song isn't rousing, urgent, danceable or affecting, which is an anomaly for a Rancid track. Maybe my expectations are too high-- it's not a bad song, per se, just lackluster-- but I think a group that has done such excellent work deserves high expectations. So I won't give up hope,-- I'm still excited about the new album and the other singles, and we'll see how it goes as we get closer to the drop date.

You can preview it at Rancid's Myspace, where it is also available for download. What do you guys think of it?

Also, as a heads up, Machete, who does Rancid's merch, is having a huge sale of Rancid tees starting at $5.