Let the Dominoes Fall

Seven albums in, not much has changed for Rancid, and that's a good thing. Produced by Bad Religion co-founder/ Epitaph head Brett Gurewitz, "Let the Dominoes Fall" is another slab of anthemic, tuneful punk that conjures the band's 1996 masterpiece ". . . And Out Come the Wolves" (one track even name-checks that disc). So immediate are songs like "Disconnected," they feel as if they've already been in the band's set list for a decade. Over hard-charging rock, swinging ska-punk or just acoustic guitars and mandolins, Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederiksen deliver another round of catchy choruses, tipping their hats to, among others, the troops in Iraq ("the bravest kids I know"), the city of New Orleans and their Bay Area home. But they're never as good as when they're tooting their own horn on the disc's best track, "Last One to Die," during which Armstrong rightly boasts, "We knew from the very first show what it was all about."