Is it right to say that The Offspring’s fifth album Americana is underrated? Granted it is one of the band’s most commercially successful pieces of work, but I feel that it wasn’t represented that well by the singles released from it. Especially “Pretty Fly” and “Why Don’t You Get a Job?“. A majority of people will only listen to the band for those two songs and never delve further into their material, missing out on what is – to put it crudely – some good shit.
After an introductory nine second skit, “Have You Ever” really begins the album with stabbing palm-muted power chords and crashing cymbals before a drum roll sets the track’s frantic tempo and singer Dexter Holland wails the first desperate lyrics: “Falling, I’m falling”.
The track is about feeling misunderstood, knowing that sometimes we have no control of our own lives, and generally feeling out of place at certain moments. The constant existential questioning is reinforced by the frenetic backdrop of guitars and drums until about halfway through when the whole song changes, the narrator becomes more confident, sees how this corrupt world really works and pledges to do something about it.
The Music in My Ears 