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Green Day

 


 

1,039 Smoothed out Slappy Hours
Released 1991
Track listing: 1) At the Library 2) Dont Leave Me; 3) I Was There; 4) Disappearing Boy; 5) Green Day; 6) Going to Pasalacqua; 7) 16  8) Road to Acceptance; 9) Rest; 10) The Judges Daughter; 11) Paper Lanterns; 12) Why do you Want Him?; 13) 409 In Your Coffeemaker; 14) Knowledge; 15) 1,000 Hours; 16) Dry Ice; 17) Only of You; 18) The One I Want; 19) I Want to be Alone;

 

reviewer: Roland

Overall Rating:10

Record Rating: 7

Band Rating: 3

 
 
Once upon a time, when Green Day werent famous yet, they went by the name Sweet Children.  They were friends with Tim Armstrong, who was then with Operation Ivy, but now with Rancid.   In fact Knowledge is an Op Ivy cover song.   (note, if you havent figured this out yet, if you love Green Day, you will love Op Ivy.  I guarantee it).     They wrote a song called Green Day, then decided to name themselves after it.  The phrase "green day" is Bay-area slang for a day with lots of green bud where you just sit around taking bong hits.  I ain't making this sh*t up.

Anyway eventually these Sweet Children, er, I mean Green Day, made an album.  And what a bang it starts off with!  At the Library  sets the tone for about a hundred songs to come, and going string.   The first, oh, 19 songs are my favourite.  haha just kidding, but seriously theyre ALL pretty good, at least decent.  My favourites are probably the first 5, then Rest, and of course the Knowledge cover.   Yeah I know in a later review I ripped this album for kindof sounding the same throughout, but I love em all anyway!  You just have to be in that mood, thats all...

Kerplunk
Released 1992
Track listing: 1) 2000 Light Years Away; 2) One for the Razorbacks; 3) Welcome to Paradise; 4) Christy Road; 5) Private Ale; 6) Dominated Love Slave; 7) One of my Lies; 8) 80; 9) Android; 10) No One Knows; 11) Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?; 12) Words I Might Have Ate; 13) Sweet Children; 14) Best Thing in Town; 15) Strangeland; 16) My Generation

 

reviewer: Roland

Overall Rating: 12

Record Rating: 9

Band Rating: 3

 
 
At one time this was my favourite Green Day album (yeah I admit I 'discovered' their first 2 albums AFTER Dookie, so sue me).  Even though I dont believe all that 'sold out' crap, I still appreciate hearing what a band sounds like back when they were 'working' for a living.  ALL the songs on here sound so fresh, like they're actually performing them out of their garage or something.    Welcome to Paradise is, I dare say, performed better here than on Dookie, I wonder why they felt like they should put it again on the next album.  Personally I think all the other tracks stand up perfectly well to Paradise, they could have easily copied over Christy Road, for example.  Oh well....

For those of you who have only heard Tre sing on All by Myself, on Dookie, its a real treat to hear Dominated Love Slave, which I'm sure must have been a concert classic (yeah yeah, Ive never actually been to a Green Day concert,  I was too poor at those times!)

I also think that songs 7-10 are the best string of 4 songs heard one after another that Green Day ever had....unless you count Dookie, in which case thats the best string of....um....how many songs are on that album again?

Dookie
Released 1994
Track listing: 1) Burnout; 2) Having a Blast; 3) Chump; 4) Longview; 5) Welcome to Paradise; 6) Pulling Teeth; 7) Basket Case; 8) She; 9) Sassafras Roots; 10) When I Come Around; 11) Coming Clean; 12) Eminius Sleepus; 13) In The End; 14) F.O.D. / All by Myself

 

reviewer: Roland

Overall Rating: 13

Record Rating: 10

Band Rating: 3

 
 
Yeah, I'm a tad biased, because I was a senior in high school when this was released, and it was just EVERYWHERE.  Then again, it was the same case everywhere else in the world too, so much so that Green Day seemed to rule the universe for about a year, and I'm not just talking about rock, it was the whole music scene, man.  There was no one that could even touch them around this time.  So understandably, this was both good and bad for them.  It was good cause, hey, they finally made it, their album kicked ass, blah.  Trouble is, their previously hard core fans hated them for it.   They also hated that the music they thought was 'theirs' was now mainstream (i.e. played on the radio, and MTV).  So they turned on them, and all the 'new' fans.   Personally I cant stand people like this, and I just dont get it.   Just be happy for the guys, will ya?  The music sounds just as good, actually even BETTER than the last 2 albums, so there is GOOD REASON they became so famous.   Besides, this is the same thing big bands have seen for 40 years.  Heck, even the Beatles' fans turned on them when they made their first album and got all famous.  So what , who cares?

Actually, there are lots of parallels with the Beatles, dont laugh.   Most notably, Green Day were simply at the right place at the right time, when America was screaming to get out of the grunge funk and listen to upbeat music again.

Anyway it doesnt matter.  The album DOES stand up to the test of time.  I should know.  I just tested it an hour ago.  Take it from me, when I say there is not one bad song on this album, I'm not saying that in a I'm-trying-to-be-nice way.  ALL these songs are TENS.  Longview might even be an 11, which would bring my overall rating to like 10.1 or something.   Then again, I might be the only person in the world who is not so crazy about She (you would not believe the number of times I have heard from ppl that this song is a, -and I quote-  'Masterpiece'....I just dont see it), that one might be a 9.8, so that brings my rating back to a 9.9.....ok I'll just round up, cause that All by Myself  song was played by everyone in my high school for like 3 months.  So was Longview.

Insomniac
Released 1995
Track listing: 1) Armatage Shanks; 2) Brat; 3) Stuck With Me; 4) Geek Stink Breath; 5) No Pride; 6) Bab's Uvula Who? 7) 86; 8) Panic Song; 9) Stuart and the Ave; 10) Brain Stew; 11) Jaded; 12) Westbound Sign; 13) Tight Wad Hill; 14) Walking Contradiction

 

reviewer: Roland

Overall Rating: 10

Record Rating: 7

Band Rating: 3

 
 
Another refreshing album.  It was sooo anticipated after the huge success of Dookie, that no matter how good this album was going to be, it was bound to fail.   And it did, commercially anyway.  Maybe Green Day did that on purpose, going for an 'unconventional' look?  But scratch that, cause there is not much on this album that doesnt stand up to the last one.   I still like it almost as much, even though its not just one continuous high point after another, its the last 'true' Green Day album, meaning before they really started experimenting.  Not that either period is bad, I like them both equally, in different ways.   This marks the glorious end of Green Day's pure punk period, and the next one begins with the experimental rock period.  Hows that.  :)   ...yeah I cant explain it much better than that, but I hope you get the gist.   (and Time of your Life did have a lot to do with it, for good or bad, like it or not)

Oh yeah, and Walking Contradiction kicks ass, its still among my all time favourites...as is Panic Song...

Nimrod
Released 1997
Track listing: 1) Nice Guys Finish Last; 2)Hitchin a Ride; 3) The Grouch; 4) Redundant; 5) Scattered; 6) All the Time; 7) Worry Rock; 8) Platipus (I Hate You); 9) Uptight; 10)Last Ride In; 11) Jinx; 12) Haushinka; 13) Walking Alone; 14) Reject; 15) Take Back; 16) King for a Day; 17) Good Riddance (Time of your Life); 18) Prostetic Head

 

reviewer: Roland

Overall Rating: 10

Record Rating: 7

Band Rating: 3

 

 
I was in college when this came out, naturally I drove down to Mad Platter on opening day skipping all my classes, got my obligatory free poster, etc...overall it was a good day.  The album is pleasantly mediocre..its not the beginning of the end yet.  As a matter of fact, Green Day at this point are still going strong, with the end nowhere in sight.

Of course this is the album with the 'dreaded' Time of Your Life song, which is really a dividing point for Green Day fans.  If you love it too much hard core Green Day fans will smack you, but you cant not like it because it its pretty good after all.   Billie Joe himself nearly tore himself apart afterwards, for the same reasons.  He's obviously trying to branch out, and not be a sell out at the same time, which is of course just stupid, because every time poor Green Day has a hit ANYTHING, they are trapped between 2 sets of very different fans.   Anyway B.J. has said that "I wished I had never wrote it", but on other interviews he admitted he thought it was cool that schools were using it as graduation songs.   Anyway shut up, its a great song, and not the only one in the album that sticks out anyway.   Hitchin A Ride sounds like something off a Stray Cats album, and Walking Alone could have been on any Weezer album.  Take Back  sounds Dead Kennedy-ish.  Kindof.  A Little.  Ok what do I know..

Still, this diversity is what makes the album so great.  It doesnt suffer the way 39 Smooth does with a gazillion tracks that sound the same, even if its a good kind of same.  You dont feel that way on this album until the middle part, maybe the 9th or 10th song a tiny bit, but overall it runs well even clocking in at 50 minutes, a frikkin rock opera by Green Day standards.

Warning
Released 2000
Track listing: 1) Warning; 2) Blood, Sex, and Booze; 3) Church on Sunday; 4) Fashion Victim; 5) Castaway; 6) Misery; 7) Deadbeat Holiday; 8) Hold On; 9) Jackass; 10) Waiting; 11) Minority; 12) Macy's Day Parade

 

reviewer: Roland

Overall Rating: 11

Record Rating: 8

Band Rating: 3

 

 
It took them so long to release this album I thought they were finished as a band.   Billie Joe must have been busy playing his Kinks records to all the babies he was making cause the title track is sooo ripped off from Picture Book from the Kink's Village Green album.   It might be an unconscious rip, like George Harrison's My Sweet Lord, but a rip nonetheless.  I can forgive him though, cause he's a big fan of the Davies clan after all, so all is well.

Misery has to be one of my favourite Green Day songs ever.  Its like a punk-meets-gypsy song!  VERY inventive!  Havent been so pleasantly surprised since I heard Alcohol (from Kinks -Muswell Hillbillies).  I also love Church on Sunday, now there is a typical Green Day song if I ever heard one, and excellently done.

Notice that the songs are getting longer?  The songwriting seems to be maturing at a steady pace (well they DID have 3 years since the last one...).  I mean, heck they even use harmonicas on Hold On, although its no great shakes on here, more like John Lennon-esque style on Love Me Do, lets keep it simple he says.

 

DISCLAIMER:  holy stick of butter, batman!  I just surfed on over to the allMusicGuide to steal the album cover and post it here, and was shocked at how similar their review was to mine.  The Bastards!  haha.   They even used Beatle and Kinks references like I did.  Damn I thought I was the ONLY one who ever used Kinks references.  geez.  anyway here is their review,........    

"By 2000, Green Day had long been spurned as un-hip by the fourth-generation punks they popularized, and they didn't seem likely to replicate the MOR success of the fluke smash "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)." Apparently, the success of that ballad freed the band from any classifications or stigmas, letting them feel like they could do anything they wanted on their fifth album, Warning. They responded by embracing their fondness for pop and making the best damn album they've ever made. There's a sense of fearlessness on Warning, as if the band didn't care if the album wasn't punk enough, or whether it produced a cross-platform hit. There are no ballads here, actually, and while there are a number of punchy, infectious rockers, the tempo is never recklessly breakneck. Instead, the focus is squarely on the songs, with the instrumentation and arrangements serving their needs. It's easy to say that Green Day has matured with this album, since they've never produced a better, more tuneful set of songs, or tried so many studio tricks and clever arrangements. However, that has the wrong connotation, since "mature" would indicate that Warning is a studious, carefully assembled album that's easier to admire than to love. That's not the case at all. This is gleeful, unabashed fun, even when Billie Joe Armstrong is getting a little cranky in his lyrics. It's fun to hear Green Day adopt a Beatlesque harmonica on "Hold On" or try out Kinks-ian music hall on "Misery," while still knocking out punk-pop gems and displaying melodic ingenuity and imaginative arrangements. Warning may not be an innovative record per se, but it's tremendously satisfying; it finds the band at a peak of songcraft and performance, doing it all without a trace of self-consciousness. It's the first great pure pop album of the new millennium. — Stephen Thomas"

International Superhits
Released 2001
Track listing: 1) Maria; 2)Poprocks & Coke; 3) Longview; 4) Welcome to Paradise; 5) Basket Case; 6) When I Come Around; 7) She; 8) J.A.R.; 9) Geek Stink Breath; 10) Brain Stew; 11) Jaded; 12) Walking Contradiction; 13) Stuck With Me; 14) Hitchin a Ride; 15) Good Riddance (Time of your Life); 16) Redundant; 17) Nice Guys Finish Last; 18) Minority; 19) Warning; 20) Waiting; 21) Macy's Day Parade

 

reviewer: Roland

Overall Rating: N/A

Record Rating: N/A

Band Rating: N/A

 

 
Ok, so I dont actually own this album, sue me, but I didnt feel like shelling out 11 bucks for a bunch of songs I already have.  the only new ones I can tell are J.A.R., which is from the movie Angus, which I think I might have seen but was only half memorable, Maria and Poprocks and Coke, which would be the only reason to buy this album.  How come there are no songs from 39Smooth or Kerplunk????

Shenanigans
Released 2002
Track listing: 1) Suffocate; 2) Desensitized; 3) You Lied; 4) Outsider; 5) Dont Wanna Fall in Love; 6) Espionage; 7) I Want to be on T.V.; 8)Scumbag; 9) Tired of Waiting For You; 10) Sick of Me; 11) Rotting; 12) Do Da Da; 13) On the Wagon; 14) Ha Ha You're Dead

 

reviewer: Roland

Overall Rating: 8

Record Rating: 5

Band Rating: 3

 

 
 Is the tested and true Green Day formula finally old?  Well, it aint 1992 anymore, and the 3 boys have married and had kids since then, slowly devoting less time to their music.  Well its not like they always released albums at breakneck pace anyway, right?  (although rumour has it there is a new one coming soon)  Anyway this is the first one I bought that I just couldnt get into.  The only bit I enjoy is the last string of 4 or 5 songs, and of course, the Kinks cover, Tired of Waiting For You, which is done perfectly (and almost exactly like the original!  hmm).

Of course, I was just, kidding.  This isnt a new album at all, but since They only realease albums once in a blue moon these days, I have casually drifted away from the hardcore Green Day fan I once was and so, to me, these were all new songs.  

Actually I lied before cause I really do like the opening track.  Yeah it rocks my world, baby.  It goes downhill from there though.  The second track is only half good, and the rest sound like they recycled bits of their old albums.   The exceptions, as I mentioned are: the Kinks cover, and the last 4 tracks.  Rotting, On the Wagon, and Ha Ha You're Dead in particular, even though Ha Ha has, I could swear, the exact same opening sequence as Blondie's Accidents Never Happen.   ok ok , once again I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, but stuff like this is just nuts.

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