Turn the Radio Off

To a significant degree, the third-wave ska revival was also the birth of a new style, one that came to be called ska-punk: the same guitar backbeats, the same horn sections, but more distortion and tempos turned all the way up to frenetic. This 1996 album by Reel Big Fish is a classic example of the genre: on the album-opening “Sell Out” the horns are tight and heavily compressed, the guitars are razor-edged, and the chorus lapses into a half-speed near-reggae vibe. The vibe is generally goofy, with a slightly nasty edge as the songs take on topics like social hypocrisy, conformism, and, you know, selling out. “Snoop Dog, Baby” (which I was half expecting to be a parody of “Ice, Ice Baby”) features a particularly nicely written horn chart.