Retrospective: how Reel Big Fish's 'Turn The Radio Off' bottled the 90s ska boom

Released in 1996, 'Turn The Radio Off' remains the clearest snapshot of the moment ska-punk broke into the mainstream. Reel Big Fish's album arrived alongside Less Than Jake's 'Losing Streak' and helped define the sound of a generation discovering horns, fast guitars and sarcastic lyrics all at once.

The band became the face of the genre beyond music too, showing up in the film 'Baseketball' during the brief stretch when ska ruled the charts. 'Sell Out', built on the joke that a young person's only options are fast food work or a major label deal, became an untouchable genre staple. 'S.R.' was reworked into a multi-genre medley live, while 'Beer' settled in as the track that best represents the band.

The record's strength is its lack of cohesion. A huge single sits next to three minutes of noodling, next to an oddly personal song about being dumped, next to a miniature ska opera. That sequencing would probably get torn apart today, but it is exactly what makes the album feel like a band throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.

'Beer' works as a companion to The Offspring's 'Self Esteem': the narrator gives up on the girl and looks for answers at the bottom of a pint glass. The tense intro, the stripped-back bridge and the unnervingly cheerful hook laid out the blueprint for the sugar-coated misery that defined the era.

Genre historians often argue 2002's 'Cheer Up!' is the stronger album, delivering 'Ban The Tube Top' and 'Where Have You Been?'. But that record landed as the boom was already fading. 'Turn The Radio Off' still sounds like a band wrestling with sudden popularity, with no eighties covers propping up the set. These days Aaron Barrett leads a rotating lineup, self-releases material and has loaned the horn section to Ice Nine Kills.