Trouble Maker (album)

Trouble Maker is the ninth studio album by the American punk rock band Rancid, released on June 9, 2017. Like many of Rancid's albums, Trouble Maker was produced by Epitaph founder and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz, and marks the band's first album since their 1993 self-titled debut to feature the original Rancid logo on the cover. The band recorded the album between December 2015 and January 2017 at Big Bad Sound, Sunset Sound, and Red Star.

The album was preceded by the first single and music video for "Ghost of a Chance". "Bovver Rock and Roll" was released as the album's second single. "Where I'm Going" was released as a promotional single. A music video was also made for "Telegraph Avenue".

Critical reception
Trouble Maker was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 69, based on ten reviews.

Shane Baldwin of Record Collector praised the album, writing: "Trouble Maker is up there with their best". Dan Weiss of Consequence of Sound wrote: "there's no formal breakthroughs on Trouble Maker beyond the astounding economy, unless you think the harmonica on "Buddy" or Clash-goes-"Ring of Fire" chords on "Telegraph Avenue" makes this the band's folk-punk album". Zoe Camp of Pitchfork resumed: "while Trouble Maker doesn't usurp the band's primordial peak, it's far and wide their strongest effort since 2000's excellent self-titled". Nick Roseblade of Drowned in Sound called the album "a return to force for Rancid, and is the musical equivalent of a football team winning a major trophy after years in the wilderness and the absolute elation that comes with that. However there is a downside", and added "Rancid could have released Trouble Maker at any point since they began".

In mixed reviews, AllMusic's Tim Sendra stated: "like their disappointing 2014 album ...Honor Is All We Know, Trouble Maker is the sound of a band going through the motions, telling the same stories over and over, bashing out the same riffs, and ultimately not connecting any punches". John Paul of PopMatters found the album "more of the same; retreads of staid ideas, sounds and themes better suited to teenage ennui".

Background and recording
Originally Rancid intended to record an EPs worth of material in December 2015.

The tracks written solely by Tim Armstrong were meant for his second solo album which was recorded with Matt Freeman on bass and Joey Castillo on drums. Upon hearing the tracks Brett Gurewitz suggested Rancid go back into the studio and use these towards a new Rancid album.

Personnel
Adapted from the album liner notes.

Rancid
 * Tim Armstrong – vocals, guitars
 * Lars Frederiksen – guitars, vocals
 * Matt Freeman – bass guitar, vocals
 * Branden Steineckert – drums, backing vocals

Studio musicians
 * Kevin Bivona – piano, Hammond B3 organ, melodica
 * Brett Gurewitz – additional backing vocals
 * Skinhead Rob – additional backing vocals
 * Michael Shultz – additional backing vocals
 * The Interrupters – additional backing vocals

Technical
 * Brett Gurewitz – producer
 * Kevin Bivona – engineer
 * Clinton Welander – engineer
 * Zach Fisher – assistant engineer
 * Andrew Scheps – mixing
 * Eric Boulanger – mastering
 * Jett Galindo – mastering assistant
 * Tim Armstrong – artwork, layout
 * Jason A. Bonner – artwork, layout
 * Ernie Parada – artwork, layout