Life Won't Wait bursts with a thrilling ambition. On Rancid's past albums, these Clash-via-Cali punks came on with an invigorating twin guitar attack that sounded like it wanted to take over the world--to set it free!--and their fourth release continues in this radical vein, insisting that "all people must rise and decide your fate." But there's newfound ambition in the music, too, as the band's raging attack is supplemented now by new sounds (rocksteady and rockabilly, even doo-wop and soul), new musical textures (the exhilarating "Crane Fist" features a piano battling a B3 organ), and new sources of inspiration, as the boys shout out for Salvadoran immigrants and brag like rappers in anthem after anthem of urgent, beautiful poetry. --David Cantwell